“Once upon a time in the Magical land of Equestria”
This was it, today was the day I officially became a member of the Enclave. Me and 6 other recruits stood proudly at attention outside our training camp at Neighvaro with our heads held high, the morning warm sun sparkling our serious expressions. The camp was simple, you got your usuals with any Enclave camp, barracks, ammo facilities, vehicle facilities, etc. I’ve been here for 9 months and I still haven’t gotten used to it. My home was on a cloud farm, yeah that’s right I’m the cliched farm kid who wanted a better life so he joined the military, sue me.
Trotting before us was Sergeant Horseshoe, a Light Grey stallion with a Mohawk white mane and Aqua eyes stood before us. This, fillies and gentlecolts was the stallion that trained our group. I had to admit I enjoyed seeing the results of my training pay off. I felt both mentally and physically fit, as for my emotions, well let’s just say I’m neutral about most things
All 7 of us wing saluted in unison, followed up by an ‘At Ease’ from the Sergeant. All of us relaxed but still keeping a professional stance. Standing before us were 4 other high ranking members of Enclave Navy including the Sergeant. In the Enclave once a recruit was done with his/her basic training we were given choices as to what branch of the Enclave we liked to work with. I wanted to be a Vertibuck Pilot, a support role felt more of my style, maybe drop off fresh troops in a transport Vertibuck or give support fire in an Assault Vertibuck. Either way I was fine, as long as my duties would help bring peace to this world.
I came out of ponyland as I kept hearing a soft ‘psst’ sound coming from one of the ponies next to me. I flocked my gaze over to a dark green mare and with an even darker green mane in a small pony tail standing right next to me. Heavyhitter was her name, and by Celestia did her name say it all. During our basic training she would beg me to spar with her, and everytime she managed to beat me into submission. How could a mare a head shorter than me, be so strong. I honestly doubted even the Sergeant could go hoof to hoof with her without suffering some kind of bone fracture.
She made several kiss motions in my direction, I turned to the other side of me wondering if those were aimed at me or somepony else, then back to her. Yep, she was making those gestures at me, again. I never could understand what she saw in me. No matter how hard I pushed her away she would always come right back. Heavyhitter joined the Enclave to be a hoof soldier, and based on my experiences, it would be a bad idea for somepony to fight her hoof to hoof.
“What do you want?” I whispered, while rolling my eyes in annoyance
“You know exactly what I want,” returned Heavyhitter
She was quickly interrupted by a loud “ATTENTION” which caused every Pegasus in our group to stand still in place. In front of our group walked a white mare with her black mane a tail in a bun. Her light blue eyes starred at each and everyone of us, and her voice was very authoritative.
“I am Lieutenant Lightwave, of the Enclave navy. For those of you interested in being under my command, step forth"
I stepped forward along with 3 other members from my group. Lightwaves gaze quickly went to me and soon enough she was directly in my face
“What’s your name soldier?”
“Quickcase, and I wish to be a Vertibuck pilot, mam”
I said as confidently as I could
She continued to stare at me expecting me to say more. My eyes met hers and I had to admit her glare was almost funny looking, though others may think she was staring into your soul. I struggled to keep my lips from curling upwards and I could feel a slight chuckle trying to force it way out of me. Oh goddesses please don’t let me buck up now. I don’t want to lose my chances with the Enclave simply by laughing at a mare of higher rank. I then found myself sighing in relief as soon as she went to buck next to me. Asking him the same questions.
***
Our quarters were medium sized enough for 4 ponies, 1 bunk bed on either side of the room, a tv on the back wall with a closet on either side and a single light fixture overhead. A plain and simple room with the atmosphere of silence, eeeyup this was my new home. Soon as I got into my room, I collapsed on my bunk bed. I was so tired, and my wings felt like a thousand needles were being injected into them. Three months, 3 bloody months of more sweat and grind. Aboard the Cloudship ‘Featherduster’ all wanna be pilots were to undergo severe wing exercises. Just like basic training they would break us to build us up. Only this time I felt more like I was going to fall down through my comfy cloud bed and break all my bones on whatever I’d land on below me. I wanted to sleep, to just go into the astral world and do whatever the buck I wanted, and wake up well rested as if it were a Saturday the next morning.
I quickly pulled out of sleep when I heard 2 chatty mares enter into the room. For goddess sake can’t a stallion get some sleep? Thunderheart, a sky blue mare with a cloud white mane and tail, and a satellite for a cutie mark. The second mare sounded awfully familiar but I didn’t bother turning my head. I figured if I’d pretend to not notice them they wouldn’t bother me. I soon came to regret that decision.
“Have fun honey bun?” Heavyhitter whispered in my ear
Startled, I forced myself up so hard my head hit the base of the bunk bed above me. Great not only was I wide awake, but a crazy stalker was in my bed room. Multi-gender bedrooms were not uncommon on the Featherduster or other Cloudships that permitted such a thing. In fact Captain Metalwing suggested it 2 years ago, saying ‘the best way for us to work together is to sleep together.’ This got him in some trouble with the Enclave council but for some reason he wasn’t punished. The Enclave had a strict rule when it comes to foal births, to avoid a famine, a family could only have 2 foals at maximum. Yet astonishingly foal births have not risen outside the normal birth rate.
Aboard vessels with multi-gender bedrooms, stallions and Mares were to sleep on opposite sides of the room. Sex was also not unheard of but rare, if a mare were to get pregnant, she and the unborn foals’ father were to be kicked from the Enclave military immediately with no exceptions. This would ensure that protection was used during such times of pleasure.
Heavyhitter let out a laugh as I rubbed my head trying to dull the pain. I looked at her with the utmost dislike I could give such a mare. Seriously, why out of all the stallions above the clouds she chooses me.
“Quickcase are you alright?” Thunderheart said in concern
Honestly I might’ve jumped on Heavyhitter had the sound of Thunderhearts voice not calm me down, not that it would’ve mattered since I most likely would be under her hoof right now. Thunderhearts voice could put any stallion to sleep with just few words, at least that’s the impression I got. She was good friend and I kind of found her attractive
“Now why in all of Equestria would you do that?” said Thunderheart
The obvious change in her tone meant she was a little upset at Heavyhitters actions. The green mare placed a hoof on my head patting it softly
“What? Just making sure the little guy is well rested. Someponys gotta check on him” said Heavyhitter
“Why are you even here, you were shipped at Haystation” I groaned tiredly
Heavyhitter shrugged and continued to look down at me.
"Don’t know I was just told I’d be given a new assignment and next thing I knew they brought me here.”
Her face went from casual to playful
“Which jogged my memory. So I did some asking around and Thunderheart led me here to you”
I glared over to Thunderheart. Now I was having second thoughts on her being attractive. Of course, how would she have known? She stared back at me with confusion
“What?” said Thunderheart
I just laid back down, too tired to do anything. Then I felt lips peck on my cheek which made something between my legs go stiff. Heavyhitter being the pony she is decides to get ontop of me. I stared up at her. Well, this was happening
“Since we’re in the same bedroom, whats say you and I mess around” said Heavyhitter
Thunderheart turned away with her foreleg covering her eyes
“Not in front of me please”
There was a knock on the door and everything went silent. A pale white stallion with blonde hair pecked his head in. Goldencross wasn’t very talkative he usually give 1 word answers. His cutie mark was redcross inside a white circle. The only time I met him was when I needed to get my wing wrapped up for pulling a muscle. Every Cloudship was built to have a medical facility, the rooms were basically beds surrounded in glass walls. The only way for one to have privacy was the white curtain that can slide all the way around your room
“Uh…..” He said in a soft tone of voice.
Hey I’d be speechless to if I walked in on 2 pegasi having intimacies, so I really couldn’t blame him
“Oh no just stand there glaring. Don’t bother to help me” I said sarcastically
I made sure to put as much sarcasm into those words as possible, but nopony budged. I looked back at Heavyhitter who had to my relief stopped laughing, and resorted to licking her lips. Ok, now she was eyeing me like I was candy. I placed 1 forehoof on her head slightly pushing her back.
“No. No. Bad pony”
Heavyhitter scoffed and stood back on the floor. Thunderheat uncovered her eyes to glance back at us both. Her face was as red as the sunset.
“You’re such a party pooper” she said in disappointment
***
We had arrived…somewhere, all 4 of us were gathered in an empty hangar bay of a cloudship. It had no name or number and the entire ship itself was black. It was sleeker than your average cloudship. Instead of having multiple guns on both sides it had 1 big one for either side. It spewed out clouds darker then a rainstorm. However what I disliked the most about this place were the cameras on the walls watching us. Ok this was way beyond creepy.
“I wonder what we’re all doing here.” said Thunderheart
There was a ‘ping’ and an elevator door opened on the balcony just a few feet higher than us. Emerging onto the balcony was Lieutenant Lightwaves. She placed both her forelegs on the railing of the balcony and stared down at us. None of us saluted, just stared back at the white mare. There was a long pause then she spoke her voice echoeing the throughout the empty room.
“I bet you all are wondering what you’re doing here”
“She’s good” I whispered, Heavyhitter nodding in agreement
“All will be explained. Follow me”
Was this some sort of test, I really dislike tests. Maybe they’ll have everyone on the ship disappear and leave us to figure out how to get out of it. By Celestia do I dislike test, and I was not in the mood for one. The Lieutenant turned away from us and into the elevator. All 4 of us followed and next thing I knew we were all packed together like a box of apples. It was enough to breathe yes, but now I was starting to regret it, somepony forgot to shower this morning and it wasn’t me. It smelled like sweat, and rotten vegetables, wrapped in moldy hay
As the elevator door stopped and the door opened, I trotted out as quickly as I could, inhaling and exhaling to get the rotten stench out of my system. The other ponies walked past me and I realized we were in a black trapezoid shaped hallway dimly lit by the lights above. I caught up to my friends who were stopped at a door, putting myself next Thunderheart as Lieutenant Lightwave punched some buttons in a terminal. I think I heard the word ‘Rainbowcrash’ right before the door opened.
We found ourselves in a room with the same color as the hallway with the same dim lighting. Only this room was circular and plain. Then I saw the Lieutenant standing next to 2 other ponies, a dark red stallion and a black mare, all in the center of the room wearing Enclave military suits. The shadows of their military caps hiding their eyes as they whispered to each other.
“Alright, what the hay is going on?” Heavyhitter said in an annoyed tone of voice loud enough for the 3 ponies before us to hear.
The 3 of them turned to face to us, but it was still hard to see their faces. The dark red stallion between the 2 mares cleared his throat before he spoke.
“I am Warrant Officer Turncoat. You have been called here today, because we believe you 4 are the most qualified candidates for this project."
He stepped forward and stood a few inches before Goldencross
“Have you heard of Project Whisper?” said the Warrant
Goldencross was short for words, but he spoke as best he could in that whisper like voice
“Um, no sir” the white stallion said nervously
Turncoat stepped a few feet away from us and all of our attention went to the black mare as she spoke. Glitterhoof was her name
“For the past few weeks now, we’ve been getting reports of scouting parties going missing.
“Missing? Excuse me mam, but how can a scouting party go missing, don’t they have transponders in their armor that can be tracked and located” Now I was confused
The room fell silent for abit
“That’s just it, whenever we lose a scouting party, we lose their signal as well” said Glitterhoof
“And let me guess. You got us all together so we can investigate, correct?” Thunderheart asked
Glitterhoof turned a glance over at Thunderheart. Had she not turned her head I’d think she were still talking to me. Honestly whatever caps they wore it was very good at concealing their eyes.
“You're half, right” she put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘half’. “We’ve sent other units to find them, even in Vertibucks. Those too went missing too.”
Ok Pegasus ponies is one thing but a Vertibucks. That had now just gone on the list of the most insane things I’d ever heard. Wasteland ponies aren’t that powerful nor stupid enough to attack the most technologically advanced force in all of Equestria. Well, if you exempt the Steelrangers and Alicorns it make sense.
“We have reason to believe that somepony down is targerting Enclave specifically, and they’re darn well good at it” said Turncoat
“Our last team that was sent to investigate managed to record their last transmission” said Lightwaves
The Lieutenant tapped her hoof on the floor and hovering above us was a screen. Apparently we were seeing a combat situation through the perspective of a Pegasus’ HUD, he was crouched behind cover of what looked like an old not so intact preschool wall that was severely damaged from where and tare of time, as beams of light shot past him. To his right were 2 injured pegasi struggling to move and another beam of yellow light shot past. We saw the scorpion tail on our hosts’ power armor was torn in half
“Buck this goddess forsaken wasteland.” screamed a soldier
He stepped out of cover to fire off a few beam shot. Whoever were shooting them were far away and we couldn’t make them out, then our host ducked behind cover again. Then he fell to the ground, we could only guess that he got hit, since his helmet didn’t move off the after words, but he was still alive, if his heaving breathing and coughing didn’t make that obvious already.
Then we heard hoof-steps, getting louder and louder until we saw somepony step in front of the downed buck. The Enclave visor only showing a reddish pink foreleg in light armor We saw our host only move his head slightly up as he was trying to get a better picture of one of his attackers, but with no luck. Then came a mares raspy voice
“Best catch of the day girls. Looks like we got 3 chickens” said a mysterious mare
Catch? Catch? Pegasi are not catch. Hearing those words made my anger go up and I was ready to head to the service to deal with whoever did this. My entire life I was told the surface was cruel and cold. Now seeing this, seeing the surface for the first time, I was determined cauterize some bad ponies. Then came a second mares voice, this one sounded psychopathic
“Hey Pounder, when we get back, can I have one of them? I’ve been itching for some fresh cock” said another mare
“Just don’t rough them up too much. Those feather heads are paying us good money for these chickens.” said Pounder
The helmet was apparently kicked so hard it started rolling. When it came to a halt we saw the red mare in what looked like…wait…is that Enclave armor. It couldn’t be. Only Pegasus ponies can operate that type of armor, but this seemed different, almost modified. The wing protrusions were gone and so was the scorpion tail, and apparently she had it decked out; parts of her armored back were covered in a raged robe. What gave it away the most was the design of the helmet. Yep she was wearing modified Enclave armor, and by the goddess did I want to end her. There was a sound from an energy rifle and then the feed cut out.
I was scared. I was scared and angry. I looked over to my friends who also seemed uneased. Then a hole in the floor opened and what came out was a square shaped container. When it opened we all saw it, a black and grey suit surrounded in soft cushions for protection. The tail looked rather weird though, different from the scorpion-like tail I’m used to seeing on all other Enclave armor.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts I give you Project Whisper”. Lightwaves introduced
END
