Fight for survival (redone)

(chapter 2)

I followed Crimson and Straight through more hallways than I could even count, having no idea how I would get back to the throne room if I needed to without a guide. For ten minutes we walked in silence that was only broken once or twice when I would ask a question or they would ask instead. We finally stopped before, what I could only assume to be a large door by pony standards, as it was around 6 feet high, and 5 feet wide. Straight and Crimson entered first and I lagged behind, watching everyone in the room look right at me, and I was slightly surprised at the low variety. In the medium sized living space was mostly ponies with what I could only assume to be a few griffons, and Minotaurs. Focusing back on Straight and Crimson I followed them towards a slightly smaller door, making me realize I might have to bend over a bit to get anywhere in this place. Inside the room was a unicorn stallion that had black fur and a white mane and tail, he wore a variation of the guards armor, without the helmet. When we entered and closed the door behind us the stallion looked up from his desk, staring intently at me with icy blue eyes. "Crimson Vision, Straight Arrow, what is this creature and what is it doing in here?" the stallion asked.

"My name is Jack Cresten, I'm a human, and I'm here to join the guard," I instead explained for myself. The stallion arched an eyebrow at me and got up from his desk, moving to the front of the desk he kept his eyes on me, seemingly analyzing me in more detail then a microscope could get close to reaching, even going so far as to circle around me a few times to get a better look.

"Alright, well I'm Captain Dark Snow, the new captain since Prince Shining armor left to the Crystal Empire," he Explained as he held out a hoof to me. I hesitantly held out a hand and shook it, sighing a little when he didn't say that what I did was wrong. "so, have you gone through the exams?" Dark asked as he walked back over to his desk and sat down.

"Not yet sir, we came here to see about getting that done and getting Jack put into a squad," Crimson answered. Captain Dark nodded his head and looked through his desk for a few papers

"Alright, sign these and then head down to the training area to begin your exam," Captain Dark explained, handing me the paper and a quill with some ink.

"Um, thanks, but could I take a shower first, as you've probably noticed I'm kinda covered in blood," I said as I motioned to myself to show all the blood that clung to my shredded clothes.

"I noticed, but I just figured you would have been smart enough to do so without asking, I mean, I didn't tell you to get there immediately," Captain Dark responded with a very small smirk. I gave him a blank stare before nodding and walking out of the room with Crimson and Straight. The two showed me to the showers, which I was very glad were large enough for a Minotaur, so I didn't really have to bend down too much. Crimson and Straight left me as I washed myself, and I hopped into the water, not even bothering to take off my clothes as they needed to be washed just as badly as I did. After 20 minuets I heard someone telling me to hurry up outside the door, and quickly stepped out of the shower and walked over to the door. I surprised Straight by walking out of the room completely covered in water and still wearing my torn clothes, which was basically nothing more than rags that barely covered me at all.

"Damn, without the blood it's even more obvious how torn up your clothes are," Straight commented. I just nodded and motioned for him to lead the way for where I needed to go and he took me through even more hallways until we exited through a door that led out of the castle and to a much more open training ground. In the training ground I could see dozens of guards training in what seemed to be magic, strength, agility, and hoof to hoof combat. Continuing to follow Straight he led me to a medium sized circle where Crimson and a mare stood.

"Hi, I'm Jack, nice to meet you," I said as I held out my hand, introducing myself to the new mare who shook my hand back.

"Good to meet you, I'm Sargent Flawless Fury, I'll be presiding over your evaluation," she explained and I nodded.

"Alright, well before we start, what kind of pony are you?" I asked. She looked confused, as did Straight and Crimson, so I decided to elaborate, "I know what 2 of the three pony tribes are, but I'm not sure what yours is called,".

"I'm an earth pony, Which is the pony tribe more in tune with the planet and is more naturally attuned with nature and strength than the other pony tribes," she answered and I nodded.

"Alright, then what's up first?"

"First were going to check your stamina, I want you to run around this circle until you feel too tired to continue," she said, and I inwardly groaned. In PE I always did bad in everything other than the flexibility test. With an inward sigh I started running around the circle, which was probably a 1/6th of a mile long. I continued running for longer than I thought possible and by the time I even started getting winded I could see the ponies looking at me in surprise. An hour in I had ran nearly 16 miles, and still wasn't tired yet. I stopped when I saw the others motioning me to come over and they looked me over.

"I'd say you have plenty of stamina, next up is the strength portion," she said as she lead us over to an area of the training ground where weights were laid out for use by any passing guards. "Alright, I want you to add as much weight the bar as it takes for you to really be working yourself, when you find that weight I want you to do as many lift as you can," she instructed. I nodded and looked for a bar that would suit my hand better, and upon finding one I added 5 10 pound weights to each side of the bar. I picked up the bar expecting it to be heavy, but was surprised to find that it actually felt kinda light. Setting the bar down I added another 20 pounds, still too light, so I added another 40, then another 60, then more and more until I had reached 500 pounds and was finally able to feel the muscles in my arms working to lift the weight. Starting to actually lift the bar I went on until I felt my arms burning and struggling to hold the bar anymore.

"How... was... that?" I asked between pants, feeling the burn in my arms from the work out.

"Well you lifted a weight of 500 pounds 120 times, which beats our Minotaur record by about 20 pounds, and 10 lifts, which is actually rather impressive," Crimson said, sounding both shocked and amazed.

"We'll give you a few moments to rest and then we'll test your flight capabilities," Flawless said.

"Sorry but that won't be happening, I have absolutely no idea how to use these things," I mentioned as I pointed a thumb to my wings, which I had very little control over.

"How could you not know how to use your own wings?" Flawless asked in bewilderment.

"They kinda just appeared on me a little over an hour ago, don't ask how, cause I have absolutely no idea how," I answered honestly.

"He'll have time to learn how to use his wings later, hopefully from one of his squad mates, so let's just skip that test for now," Crimson cut in.

"If that's the case then the last test is for your mental stability," Flawless said, bringing us over to a unicorn stallion that had only recently entered the training grounds and had been watching me since I had reached my fiftieth rep with 500 pounds. He had brown fur with a red mane and tail and he wore a white lab coat.

"Hello, my name is Magic Vision, I happen to be a professor at Celestia's school for gifted unicorns," Magic greeted.

"Wait, if you have vision in your name, are you related to Crimson Vision?" I asked, confused as to how the ponies naming system worked.

"No, you see my name relates to my special talent, which is the use of magic that allows me to see and examine many things, while his relates to his excellent eye sight, and as far as I've heard he even has the record highest distance clearly seen with, and without magical enhancements," Magic explained. I nodded, understanding that pony names weren't exactly based on family like humans, but instead related to the ponies special talent... whatever that means. "alright, now just clear your mind and I'll quickly look to see if you're mentally healthy," he said, I nodded and sat down, clearing all thoughts from my mind. For a few moments nothing happened, then suddenly I heard a loud screech of hatred and in the darkness of my mind saw what looked like the witch from L4D in even more detail than the game could ever give her, small strips of flesh hanging limply from her rotting form as her razor sharp claws dripped a constant flow of blood from their tips. Within that split second I felt movement in front of me and opened my eyes, seeing Magic had jumped back from me and was shaking ever so slightly.

"Are you okay?" I asked as everyone else looked at him nervously.

"Yes, yes, I am fine, also you pass, you have enough mental stability to become a royal guard, even though your thoughts are rather dark and morbid, they don't reach the level of being unstable or evil," he said, shaking his head a little bit before leaving quickly. I kept a curious gaze on him all the way to the entrance of the training ground, wondering what could gotten a reaction out of him like that.

"Well, all that's left is the paper work," Sargent Flawless said, handing the papers to me with a quill and some ink that she pulled from somewhere that I couldn't see. I nodded to her and got to work, answering the questions (that were thankfully in English), the questions were rather straight forward, asking things like my full name, age, place of birth, physical capabilities (done by Flawless), etc. After done Straight and Crimson brought me back to the barracks so I could turn in the form. Entering the barracks again I could see that many of the guards that were there previously were gone. We knocked on the door of the captains office and were told to come in, and so we entered to find the captain putting papers away into his desk.

"I've got the paper work done," I said, handing him the forms as he looked them over, nodding his head as he went over the information.

"Interesting, well there's only one squad we have that is need of new members at the moment, so you'll be paired up with Private Straight Arrow, Private River Breeze, and Third Lieutenant Crimson Vision," Captain Dark Snow said. I recognized Straight and Crimson, but I had no idea who River Breeze was.

"Alright Captain," I sated, giving a light salute which he returned with and amused smirk.

"Go to the mess hall and enjoy your last dinner before waking up like a guard, also, look into getting some armor in the morning" He said. I nodded and followed Straight out of the barracks (Crimson had left at some point when I was being assigned to his team) and led me to the mess hall. We yet again walked down many halls until we came before a rather plain looking double door that was just under my height.

"Alright, this is the mess hall, let's go in," Straight said with a smile as he pushed the door open and we entered. The first thing that I noticed was that I could see an ocean of colorful ponies wearing guards armor, except for the helmets. Looking over to Straight to ask him what was going on I was shocked to see him change colors just by taking off his helmet. As soon as his helmet was removed there was a light ripple over his body before it began to change color, his fur turning forest green, his eyes turning a light crystal blue, while his mane and tail turned a dirty blond color, though the green around his eyes was slightly darker, almost like a mask. "I'm sure you're wondering why my colors changed, to put it simply all of our guard helmets have a special enchantment that changes our fur to look either grey, or white to make our forces look more unified as a single entity," he explained.

"Alright, but what about non-ponies?"

"They usually don't have that enchantment, and even if they did I don't think you would need it, seeing how you're the only human," he answered. I nodded, though I did see a small amount of guilt go through his eyes, I could only assume it was because he realized what exactly he just said.

"It's okay, I'm not upset, also, looking good Straight," I said before he could say anything, holding a light smirk as I talked. Straight gained a small look of shock before smiling and nodding as he led me over to where the food was. Grabbing a few fruits and veggies, as well as a slice of meat from the griffons area (which earned me some smiles from the fellow meat eaters) I started following Straight to a table where I could see Crimson with another pony. The pony looked like she was a unicorn mare (from her physique, and her horn, obviously) with ocean blue fur, jade green eyes, and a white mane and tail. Focusing back on Crimson I could finally see that he actually had blackish fur, Crimson red eyes, and a light red mane and tail. Getting closer and closer I took a deep breath and thought to myself, 'I wonder if my life is actually going to get better here?'.