Beneath The Surface

1545, 16 September, 2085
Equestrian Army Barracks, Canterlot
Snapshot

I was used to hardships. I had gone days without food, and sometimes had to mend my own injuries in a back alley. When it came to rough situations, I was well-adjusted. What was different about my current situation, however, was that this time there was no running. There was nothing to avoid, there was no way to escape and heal myself, and there was no way to cheat the system. This time, everything was closely monitored, every move that I made was watched to ensure that my body would gain and become more powerful. Under normal conditions, that would be pointless, as I could just transform into a more fit pony. In her infinite wisdom, Princess Luna had me only doing a partial transformation. Instead of changing my body completely, I was merely casting an illusion over my body to change my image. Every muscle being worked, strained, healed, and then worked more was one of my own. Needless to say that it was a first for me. Changelings don't have to lift weights or run laps to improve ourselves, we just do it!

It was for that very reason why my mood had been one of the most sour that I can remember. Even with that in mind, I was preparing myself for something much worse. My two weeks of practice were up, and by this time tomorrow I would be in the Ranger School. It would be the biggest lie that I had ever told to say that I wasn't nervous. Keep in mind that while saying that I would be pretending to be an entirely different species.

I stepped out of the shower room, and began to dry off my coat. It was yet another thing that I was not used to doing. When a Changeling transforms, our magic surrounds our bodies in a flame, cleansing our body of the illusion, a side-effect of that transformation was that it would clean our chitin. No dirt, sweat, rain, mud, nothing. I shuffled my way through the locker room, some ponies were celebrating the end of our pre-training, while others were just as nervous as I was. As everyone finished washing off our last session of training, we all made our way out into the courtyard outside of the barracks. Once I made my way out there, I saw Snowstorm again and walked up to him. The warm emotions rolling through my body, helping to heal my muscles faster. It was one of the bonuses of his 'friendship', since we were almost always near each other, extra energy was never far away. Because of that, my muscles would heal faster during and after a workout session. It helped me to gain more muscle in the past two weeks than a normal pony gets in a month.

"Hey kid," Snowstorm said as he noticed me, "You ready for this? We're finally headed out to the real stuff. Are ya nervous?" I chuckled a bit at his greeting. Snowstorm always had a ready-to-go attitude, and I would be lying to say that I wasn't going to miss it.

"Ya, we'll see how good this training was for us" I said, I was getting a sense of nervousness from him, though it was surprisingly less than most of the other candidates around us. Seeing as I was reluctant to talk much, Snowstorm would fill in some of our free time telling me a bit about himself. He was originally from Cloudsdale, but he had moved to Ponyville when his daughter was born. His wife died during childbirth, so he had raised his filly on his own, joining the Guard's Reserve for a bump in income. Now that his daughter had moved out of his house, he decided to join the active duty portion of the Equestrian Military, and in a desire to see how hard he could push himself, he had decided to join the Lunar Rangers. At the ripe old age of thirty nine, he was the second oldest in our group of candidates, after one of the griffons, who was forty two.

Out on the edge of the courtyard, was a string of transport carriages, they were fully armored, and painted with a black and dark grey camouflage pattern. In front of the carriages, there was a stage with a dozen ponies, three griffons, and a minotaur. All of them were dressed in what I recognized as Ranger battle-armor. Now that I wasn't bleeding, I was able to get a decent look at the armor, and I was impressed.

All of them were dressed in a set of fatigues with the same color scheme as the transports behind them. Not an inch of their bodies were exposed, minus their tails. On top of the fatigues on their chests was a black tactical vest with a zipper down the middle. When I looked closely, I could see that the vests were loaded with ammunition, and each of the Rangers was carrying a sidearm. On their flanks, wings, legs, and the minotaur's arms, there were small ceramic plates, some had painted designs, such as a flame, or a battle ax, but somewhere on all of their armor was the Lunar Ranger's emblem: a winged kite shield with a moon emblazoned on it, and a vertical sword behind the shield. Their helmet's were covering their entire heads, with a large, dark grey visor covering their faces, and plates coming down the sides of their jaws. All in all, they looked pretty badass.

I heard a whistle from next to me, I turned to see Snowstorm looking over the Rangers too, "Well they look pretty badass, don't they?" He said, his perpetual smile still on his face. I shook my head. Though I loathed to admit it, I was going to miss him.

I looked back to the stage, and I saw Sergeant Blitz walking up and talking quietly to one of the Rangers. On top of his head was a dark grey beret, with the Ranger emblem on the front. For the first time since I had been here, I saw him smile as he shook one of the Ranger's hooves. The smile soon vanished as he turned back to the group in front of the stage.

"Somehow not all of you have been booted out of the program yet, so I'm going to leave it to these people behind me to beat the shit out of you. These," He gestured to the Rangers behind him, "Will be your instructors for the foreseeable future. Before I turn you over to them, though. I have a few things to say." He stepped out across the stage, pacing back and forth, "The Lunar Rangers is the most elite fighting force that this world has ever known. That is not because of the intense training program, or our top of the line hardware, it is because we are made up of the best ponies, zebras, griffon, and minotaurs in the world. Each and every Ranger is a volunteer, no one has forced them to be a part of this unit. Every single one sought out this lifestyle, the same as you are attempting to do now. We come from all walks of life, farmer and banker, peasant and noble, soldiers and criminals, the Lunar Rangers do not discriminate those who seek us out. Some of you here may have been thieves, murderers, or rapists. Some of you may have been orphans, street urchins, or beggars. Some come from within the military, and some come from the noble houses. It makes no difference to us where you come from or who you are. we have equal respect for any who actually want to toil in the dirt and grime for a living. To constantly be in danger, to be shot, stabbed, burned, blown up, and keep on pushing because if you don't the Rangers alongside you will die."

"Just as we will accept where you may come from, we ask that you do the same. It doesn't matter if you are a unicorn-" I knew where he was going with this, "-Pegasus," A lump was growing in my stomach, "-Earth pony, donkey, griffon-" I was staring down at my hooves, "-Minotaur-" I closed my eyes, waiting for my time to come, "-Zebra-" This was the point where I was going to be alone again, "-Or a changeling. You can drop the disguise now." I hesitated a moment as everyone was looking through the crowd, murmuring between themselves, I felt hostility being thrown around as ponies were looking for the changeling.

With a bright orange flash, I dropped my disguise. There was a gasp from some of the candidates around me. I kept looking at my hooves, not caring to see the hate in their eyes. I sensed Snowstorm take a step away from me. 'Like I thought, there goes my-' My thought was interrupted with a Thud as I was hit in the side and fell to the ground. I looked up and saw most of the crown backing away from me, but there was two ponies slowly advancing on me. I stood back up, I was through letting people hit me. If they wanted to beat me, I was going to put up a fight. I tensed my muscles, waiting for another hit to come as I looked between the two candidates in front of me.

"What the fuck did I just say?" I heard Blitz shout over the crowd, I looked over towards the sound of his voice, and saw him slowly making his way down the steps. I realized that I had looked away from the ones threatening me, and whipped my head back around. Before I could see them again, there was another loud Thud. This time, there was no pain in my face, and as I turned around, I saw Snowstorm standing between me and the ponies. His hooves were up, blocking the punch that was being thrown at me.

"You heard the Sergeant," Snowstorm said, his voice almost at a growl, "That wasn't very accepting."

"What the fuck are you doing?" One of the ponies yelled, trying to take his hoof away, but Snowstorm wasn't letting go, "It's a changeling! We're at war with them!" The second pony took a step towards me and Snowstorm, but stopped as we all heard what sounded like a pistol being charged. Behind the second pony, a dark figure materialized out of nowhere, holding a handgun to the ponies head.

"What. The fuck. Do you think you're doing?" The Ranger said slowly. The pony turned around slowly, eyes growing wide as he saw the pistol.

"W-We...I...Uhh." The pony stammered, before backing away slowly. He didn't get very far until he bumped into another Ranger, who just stared at him. As I looked around, I saw that the Rangers who had been on the stage were now surrounding us. Some had weapons drawn, but all of them were staring at the offenders with their cold visors. The two ponies who had hit me were looking around the circle, eyes wide with terror, not saying anything.

Snowstorm released the first pony, and took a step back next to me. He snorted, "Cowards. What happened to that big talk?" The ponies looked at Snowstorm, then back to me. I could feel the fear in them, and for a moment, I thought that they were about to piss themselves. The Rangers lowered their weapons as Sergeant Blitz came into the circle.

"Apparently you two don't listen very well," He said, walking around the two ponies, "What part of 'We ask that you do the same' don't you understand?" His voice was dangerously neutral.

"S-Sir, W-W-we were...Uhh," One of the ponies said, visibly shaking, "It's a... uhh. It's a changeling, sir"

Blitz stopped barely an inch away from his face, "I'm aware that He is a changeling. Isn't that what I just said? What I asked was: What. Are. You. Doing?" I knew that he wasn't doing this on my behalf, but I felt real anger rising from the Sergeant.

"S-Sir, We-We're at war with the changelings. What's one of them doing here?"

Blitz looked back at me, "Well? do you want to answer him?"

I shook my head and stepped up next to him, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear me, "I'm here for the same reason as any of you. I want to be a part of the best, and to bring some pain down on The Swarm. That's Chrysalis' Changelings" I felt a mix of anger and confusion rising from almost all of the crowd. "Princess Luna found me in Canterlot, and she believed that I could be of use, so she introduced me to this program, and here I am." I looked around me, making eye contact with the ponies around me, "I am not, nor have I ever been affiliated with The Swarm. I probably have a better reason for wanting them dead than any of you." Most of the candidates gave me glares. Then I looked at Snowstorm. We held eye contact for a moment, before his trademark smile returned to his face.

"Well that explains a couple things doesn't it?" He said, the waves of warmth still coming off of him.

'W-What? He doesn't hate me? This pony has to crazy'

"Interruption aside," Blitz said to the crowd, "Before I turn you all over, remember one thing. Each and every one of you has a reason for being here. Even if you don't really know what it is yet, find it. Work for it, let it drive you as you move through this program. You're going to have to fight for every inch that you gain, remember what made you decide to join the Rangers and strive for it." He looked at me for a moment, I could have sworn that I saw him give me the slightest nod before walking away through the crowd.

"Alright, all of you!" One of the Rangers shouted, "Your asses are our's now! Get onto those transports!" There was a slight pause before we all sprinted for the carriages.

We all piled into the cramped transports, before they started rolling down the road towards our first real portion of training.

4 hours later

My carriage finally slowed to a stop outside of a long fence, topped with barbed wire. One of the new instructors stepped out in front of us, "This is the last friendly voice that you will hear until the end of training. Once you leave this carriage, you will form up in front of the gate. You will then pass through our ward gates to ensure no one is trying to smuggle anything inside of the compound, and you will all be led over to the supply building. There you will be issued your training uniform and armor. After that, you will be brought to your barracks and instructed on our basic methods for combat, understood?"

"Yes sir" We all said tiredly.

"I'm sorry," the instructor said, "I thought that I asked you all a question?"

"YES SIR!" We all shouted, much more together.

"Then what are you waiting for? Get the fuck off of this carriage!" He screamed at us, I could see the candidates on the other carriages pouring out and lining up outside. As fast as we all could, we stormed off of the carriage. We were the third group to make it to the fence, as the first group was starting to move through the gates. "What the fuck is taking so long?" One of the instructors yelled at us, "My niece moves faster than you idiots!" As we came to the front of the line, we slowly made our way through the gates. I could see instructors making their way through the crowd, screaming at everything they saw. I couldn't tell which instructor was which, due to their armor, and the fact that none had given us their names.

As I passed through the gate ,I was suddenly swarmed by three instructors and thrown to the muddy ground. "What are you doing down there grub?" one of them screamed at me. I tried to stand back up when I was kicked back down, "Did I fucking say that you could get up, grub? Now what the hell are you doing down there?" I started to get up again, when a hoof was planted on my back, forcing me back down into the mud.

"You knocked me down" I said, looking up at the Ranger.

"Oh did I?" He said, reaching a hoof down to me, "Well how about you get back up then?"

I stood up, waiting to be pushed back down. He moved forward until he was right in my face, "How about you get back in line grub?" I glared for another second before moving back into the line moving towards the supply building.

Once everyone was through the gate, we were ushered into the supply building, where they took our measurements and gave us the appropriate article of our uniform and armor in an assembly line fashion. The instructors were moving in and out of the lines, screaming, pushing, and tormenting the candidates. I saw one Griffin attempt to throw a punch at an instructor, but he was easily countered and thrown to the ground. Every time someone stepped out of line or did something slightly different from what we were told to do, the instructors were on them in a heartbeat to 'correct' them.

I donned my blue training uniform and armor and made my way outside of the building. We looked similar to the instructors, but were different enough so that you could tell the difference immediately. The main difference in our armor was that the visor in our helmets was clear plastic, and the armored plates on our legs were a shiny chrome.

As we left the building, one of the instructors told us that we were to run everywhere, the words 'walk' or 'jog' were no longer a part of our vocabularies. In a sloppy formation, we made our way over to the barracks that was to be our home for the foreseeable future. As we came close to the building, I saw one of the other Candidates reach out and trip me, sending me flying onto the ground again. the instructors swarmed me again.

"Get Up! Get Up! Get Up! Do you want to fucking die grub?" I shot back up and re-joined the formation, which was being closed up by the instructors who were surrounding us. We quickly entered our barracks and stood next to a random bunk. I chose on in the corner, as far from anyone that I could. As the last of the candidates were ushered into the building, I saw one move in front of the bunk next to mine. It took me a moment, but I recognized him as Snowstorm. He cast a glance towards me and flashed a quick smile before resuming his stoic look.

Over the next three hours, we were screamed at, forced to do push ups, screamed at some more, antagonized, occasionally beaten, and called every creative name that the instructors could throw at us. They showed us how they wanted us to stow our armor and uniforms, explained to us how we would be issued our training weapons the next morning, and what was going to happen over the next few days. It was a lot to take in, and everything had been happening so fast that I had lost track of time. My head was spinning from the information being constantly thrown at us, as well as the overwhelming amount of raw emotion being thrown around. The first night had me re-thinking why I had agreed to come here, but it was just beginning.