Author's Note

I've got to say, I'm just blown away with how much everybody seems to enjoy this so far. Lets see how good I can make this. Also, yes I spelled Geurillas wrong. I'm working on this through a phone that has autocorrect and it works in very strange ways. Also, Achilles story will get fleshed out in the next chapter

Chapter 3: Training

I'd been cleared by the doctor the next day. Seeing as how I was still acting fine, they figured that my temperature wasn't lethal. So they led me off to a large room, where there were many other humans, and just as many ponies. My handler put me next to some of the other humans, and addressed the assembled ponies.

"Alright. Today, you will be getting your humans. Play with them, talk to them, try to form a bond with one. If the human chooses you, then that's the one you get." As soon as I heard this, I basically tuned him out. I was looking for a partner. Most of the ponies in the room were eying me, and I knew they wanted to have me as their human. I passed my gaze away from them, since they were likely only trying to get me because I looked more impressive then the other humans, and found a pegasus mare who seemed nervous. She wasn't the smallest pony in the room, nor the largest, and whenever I looked at her, and she saw me looking, she'd turn her eyes away, looking scared. I found it peculiar. This green pony with black hair seemed almost terrified of the humans, yet she still was here. Her head came up to about the area of my heart, and she was neither fat nor thin, or overly muscular. Just... inbetween. She was also kind of attractive what with the fact she had some nice curves to her. I didn't know if it was from the years of being raped repeatedly or from my prolonged exposure, but I did find her quite attractive.

Eventually, the instructor finished his speech, and the ponies began to sift through the humans. Me, I was walking towards the green one. Before I made it to her, a hulk of an earth pony stood in front of my path. He was laden with so much muscle, I found it a miracle he could move at all. Still shorter than me though.

"Hey little guy. How'd you like to come with me?" He had this smile on his face that somehow looked... predatory. I walked around him, towards the mare again, but he grabbed hold of one of my metal arms.

"Where do you think you're going? You're with me now." He said, a little forcefully. I looked down at him with the most menacing look I could muster. He seemed to freeze, unable to do anything. I twisted my hand free, and continued on my journey to the pegasus that was just standing there, unsure of what to do.

She suddenly looked right at me, and shrank at my gaze. However, she didn't cower away from me. I took a knee in front of her, and offered my hand. She stole a glance at me, which was followed by a surprised expression. She looked at my hand, then back to me.

Moving at a snails' pace, I reached up to her neck, and gently, ever so gently, rubbed her neck. At first, she looked alarmed, but soon her look of terror was overwhelmed by one of ecstasy. She gave a hum of delight, pressing her neck deeper into my digits much like a cat would. I gave her a pat on the head, and rose to my full height, and stood beside her.

The hulk from before was staring at the scene with anger. His face was visibly red from underneath his fur, eyebrows furrowed so deeply he was going to get wrinkles, and I could've sworn I could see steam rising from his ears.

"It chose her? Why the buck would a human like this choose her?!" He yelled. Little did he know, one of the instructors was right behind him.

"Well, if you'd cared to read the information booklets we gave you, you would've known that humans don't like it when a handler or owner is projecting their will over the human, if it's an Alpha like this one clearly is. Alpha's typically bond better with ponies and other humans who seem weaker and/or smaller than the others in it's pack. In fact, nearly every human shows signs of caring more about those they perceive as weak, which would need more care, over the ones they see as strong, who they see as not needing any help unless the pack is fighting an adversary."

Not my thought process, but interesting to know. I thought.

The pony scowled before turning around to find some other human.

My new handler regarded the instructor, "Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes private?"

"What's this humans' name? And what exactly happened to him?" She asked.

He hummed in thought, and pulled out a file from his saddle bags, "His name is Achilles. It says here that he was captured from an illegal human fighting ring. The handlers we arrested said he had been in the circuit for about three years, and that they never found out what all the metal on him is from. Medical notes say he is extremely intelligent for a human, and extremely gentle. Especially considering where he came from. He also seems to have an affinity for... alcohol? And it also says that he has an average temperature of... 98.9 degrees, and suffers no symptoms and is seemingly completely healthy." The instructor looked at me with a small amount of fear. I knew why too. Humans here who got a temperature that high usually suffered through delusions and lost their minds. Often becoming extremely violent. I didn't know if liking alcohol was something he'd be afraid of, but seeing how I could get when I was drunk, I'd be at least a little hesitant.

"Well, Private, here's his files. Read over it carefully, and take him to your platoon barracks. Get to know him, bond with him, and be ready for training later today."

"Yes Drill Instructor!" She yelled in the typical trainee way. I made sure to look straight at her before saluting myself. Ponies usually dismissed my intelligence if they saw me repeating something I'd seen, so I was confident this little trolling would go unnoticed. The instructor looked absolutely flabbergasted when he saw my sharp salute. He held his face with a hoof, and walked off muttering to himself.

The mare took out a leash, and hooked me to it. She clicked her tongue and gently told me to follow her, and I did. I stood right by her side, matching her pace, as we walked down the halls. We came out of the castle to another yard, filled with rows upon rows of wooden barracks. The pony took me to the closest one to us, and entered in. The inside was filled with ponies of all races, a zebra, and a horse. They were all doing different things from armor and weapon maintenance, reading, studying, playing cards, talking, and resting. When we entered the room, however, they all stopped what they were doing to stare at us.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" She said, trying to sound cheerful and failing. She sounded nervous.

"Sweet Celestia, Raindrop! Could you have picked a more terrifying human?" One of the stallions asked.

"Well, I didn't actually choose him. He chose me. I don't really know why. He may look terrifying, but he was nice when he first walked up to me." Raindrop said. I ruffled her hair, as if to punctuate her statement.

"Whatever you say, just keep that thing away from me! Look at him! He's got metal arms, chest, legs, and those eyes! Bucking Tartarus, he looks like a demon possessed him!" Another stallion yelled.

"Oh grow a pair, will ya? He hasn't done a single mean thing since he picked me. Now I don't know about you, but I want to learn how to take care of him before the weekend." With that, she trotted over to an unoccupied bed, and laid down on it with a book about humans, and started to read. Idly, I wondered what she meant by the weekend thing. This was boot camp right? Why would the weekend matter? It's just lighter training exercises, right?

Having nothing else to do, I sat down next to her bed, and stared at the wall across from me, trying to stop thinking. I didn't move an inch until one of the ponies approached me.

"Hey big guy, how you doing?" Asked a white stallion with a black mane. He sounded like how I'd talk to a dog. I turned my gaze away from him to resume staring at the wall.

"Don't talk much do you?" He asked sarcastically. A bunch of ponies who were near enough to hear him laughed. I guess it would have been funny if he'd been saying it to a dog, but to me it just fell flat. He started petting me, but I paid little mind. I had failed my wanting to think about nothing, and was thinking about how much more I'd need to pay attention to my facade. In the fighting circuit, I didn't need to keep up appearances much because my captors didn't pay that much attention to me. Here, I'd constantly need to be focused on looking like any other human I'd seen. Stupid.

I then realized that Raindrop was reading aloud to herself. I knew that the doctors had installed robotics inside my ears since I was hard of hearing after the blast that damaged a lot of the sensitive tissues inside my ears. Now, I could practically control how well I could hear using only thought. I amped up my hearing just enough to focus on Raindrop. I caught her muttering about what not to feed humans.

"Do not feed kidney beans that are uncooked or cooked at or under 70 degrees. Left improperly cooked, kidney beans contain a substance that is incredibly poisonous to humans, even though they are perfectly fine for a pony to eat. Do not feed flowers, as they contain a chemical compound that if not immediately forced to vomit up, will remove a humans' ability to digest any food, effectively starving the human to death no matter how much you feed said affected human. Ok. Now I know what not to feed him." Raindrop said to herself.

I knew most of this already, thanks to a funny YouTube channel called Sam O'Nella Academy. However, I was surprised to hear that these ponies would know about this. Eh, ponies. They're full of surprises.

"Humans must be bathed at least once a day to keep clean and healthy skin and hair. Humans can go longer if needed, although they may develop ailments of the skin if not bathed. Regularly exercise to keep your human healthy and content. Ensure to provide a protein rich diet. Having little or no protein will leave your human ill, easy to bruise, and weak, as they cannot synthesize the proteins they need from plant material like ponies. They can, however, make more proteins out of whatever proteins they ingest as long as it is sufficient to the needs of the human in question which will vary based on the size of the human. Oi, they really go in depth with the details, huh boy?" Raindrop finished, asking me. I turned my head to her with an empty stare, then looked back at the wall.

She read a little bit longer about things that didn't really matter, until the door opened with a bang.

"Alright maggots! 5 mile run, on the double!" The presumed Drill instructor commanded.

Everypony in the room scrambled from their various positions to sprint out the door and form up into a platoon formation. Me, I stood right by the side of Raindrop, and as soon as the DI deemed us as acceptable, he had us running. Then, he started belting out a very familiar running cadence.

"How does it feel to be in the Navy?" He sang.

"I don't know, we don't sink that low!" The ponies belted back. I struggled to contain a crazy grin. I'd sang this as a Marine.

This... this is just too good! I laughed in my head.

The song was basically an insult to every branch in the military other than the Marines back on earth, so I could only wonder what branch this was.

They continued the cadence another 5 times before devolving into "Left! Left! Left right left!", which is one of the easiest cadences to remember, and one of the more well known. At least as far as I knew.

We kept running, which was easy as hell when your legs were metal prosthetics. Raindrop didn't seem to be taking it well though, as she huffed and puffed, trying to keep up the run. In fact, many of the ponies seemed to be struggling in the same way. The horse seemed to be doing better, but he was still huffing. The only one that didn't have a problem was the DI. He was just belting out cadence as he ran.

Finally, we arrived at the barracks again. The DI told the ponies to cool down, which most of them decided was permission to collapse on the ground. After a minute or two of rest, he told them to get up, and start push ups. Since it didn't really do anything for me, I just stood there, watching while holding back laughter. In boot camp, I'd had to do far more than this, and all the guys had done much better with getting used to the training.

Then, the DI commanded them to report to a classroom, but held back Raindrop.

"Take him to the handler. He's getting an ID branding."

Raindrop visibly flinched, while I held back one of my own. A branding didn't sound good any way you put it.

Raindrop looked at me sadly, "Come on boy. We need to go." I forced myself to follow her. This vaguely reminded me of brand tattoos. I wondered why anyone would ever want to brand themselves with hot iron, but at the moment, it didn't concern me. I was going to get branded, and unless I wanted to do something very drastic that would probably get me killed, there was no stopping it.

We traversed the grounds where a lot of ponies seemed to be doing just as we had done. They all looked ready to pass out. They must've just started training, so they'd get into shape eventually. Finally, we arrived at a plain building with a line of ponies with humans on leashes by their side.

Wouldn't you know it, we were right behind the guy from earlier that tried to force me into being his human. The human he had now looked bat shit insane. Constantly twitching and making odd sounds. How'd he get pass inspection?

The stallion looked behind him to look at us, and blinked before a scowl manifested on his face, and he turned back to look at the line.

"Crazy human. Doesn't know how great I am." He muttered too low for anyone else to hear.

Raindrop seemed to be completely oblivious to his seething anger, but thankfully she didn't try to make any small talk. The line actually made good progress as we waited. It couldn't be more than a few minutes before it was my turn.

Inside the building was basically a forge, making and repairing weapons and armor meant for humans. A black furred unicorn stallion with grey hair looked up at us.

"Here for branding?" He asked, sounding bored. Raindrop and me both flinched at the word, but Raindrop still nodded.

The stallion grunted. With his magic, he levitated branding irons with numbers on them, and another that had it's letters backwards. The stallion then used his magic to heat up the metal until them glowed orange. He looked at me once, then turned to Raindrop.

"Could ya take off his armor please?" It seemed as though he was irritated by this little inconvenience.

"I'm sorry sir, but his file said that they don't come off."

The stallion grunted in irritation, "Guess it's going on his stomach then."

Well fuck me sideways and call me Mary, this is gonna hurt.. I stiffened up, and squeezed my eyes shut. Raindrop decided to get up on her hind hooves, and held me tightly.

"It'll be alright boy. It won't last long." She said softly. I agreed with the 'alright' part. I'd obviously gone through worse. But I knew she was lying about the 'won't last long' part.

Hot iron pressed against my stomach, the large one with the letters I'd guess. It started off feeling cold, but rapidly turned into searing pain as the iron was continuously pressed against my skin. I became very aware of the hissing sound it made as my skin burned. I forced myself to not move my arms or legs, but I allowed myself to thrash my head and howl in pain. I could feel all the nerves in my torso screaming at me to do something, which I had to ignore.

The other irons were shortly applied, 6 numbers in total. The whole time, I took it while screaming in pain. Raindrop was cooing at me brokenly, as though she was holding herself back from crying as she pet me slowly.

"There we go, done. He took it mighty well." I tuned everything out as I collapsed in pain. My knees slammed into the ground with a mighty thud, and my torso fell backwards. That had hurt more than when they'd inserted my artificial limbs. That truly hurt.

Raindrop was petting me, and saying something that I couldn't hear. Not because I had decided to shut off my ears, but because I had finally gone numb, and wasn't thinking. At all. At least it dulled the pain a bit.

*The Weekend*

My burns had finally scabbed over, and had begun to heal. It didn't really hurt, but it did itch. I constantly had to stop myself from scratching, and every time I exercised they cracked open.

The one thing I did end up enjoying was that I wasn't fighting on a constant basis, and Raindrop and I spent more time together. Classes about being a guard and a soldier, PT, and combat training more or less took up our whole schedule. First night though, I'd had a nightmare and jumped awake so ridiculously, it had woken her up. She saw how terrified I looked, and instantly dragged me into the bed with her. What baffled me was after that, no nightmares.

Now we were walking to her home, which still confused me. She didn't have a weekend pass, and somehow she was still allowed to go home for the weekend. Boot camp for me never involved a free weekend at all.

Shortly after leaving, she did me an incredible favor, which she wasn't even aware of being a favor. She bought me pants, and thank God for that. I'd spent three years mostly in the nude for all to see, and finally I could maintain some dignity. It was a good thing too, some of many of the ponies we passed gave me some very lecherous looks. It was clear that their minds were in the deepest, dirtiest gutter in the world.

It reminded me all too much of how insurgents would look at me and my guys whenever we were going through a village. We all knew they'd be shooting at us later, but we couldn't do anything until they started shooting at us. It also reminded me of the rapings. Every part of me shuddered with unease and disgust.

The walk through the city was otherwise uneventful. I still stood in awe of the buildings. I'd spent the greater majority taking part in combat which would wreck most buildings in the area, so seeing what they managed to create was still something I could admire.

Slowly, the city became less and less beautiful until it we had entered what looked like a slum. Does she live here? It's still better then where I've been, but this is still sad to see. The ponies in this area seemed more friendly than those in the better areas though. They usually smiled and waved at us, some coming up to talk with Raindrop or pet me. They didn't pet me for long, since I'd do it right back, and they'd get lost in my "magical" fingers. They seemed all to much like cats when I started petting them.

I also met a lot of other humans too. They were much more docile then I was used to. Whenever one of the ponies that had a human with them started talking with Raindrop, their human would investigate me. Usually being stared at, but sometimes they would touch my arms and the metal supports for them on my chest and make odd cooing sounds as they did so. I didn't stop them, since it was very strange to see them acting this way for me. Usually, humans would back away from me terrified, or try to kill me. In a way, I kind of liked it. No longer was I the death machine humans saw me as. Just another human, albeit one that looked strange.

Finally, we reached what I guessed was her home. An apartment building made of brick that looked worse for wear. Parts of the walls looked as if they'd been scorched by fire at some point. We climbed some stairs inside until we were on the top floor, and she opened the door to her home.

"Ok boy, we're home!" She said cheerfully to me. I didn't really have any place to argue. If I was safe, warm and fed, I didn't really care where I was given a home. Anything was better than that hellhole fighting circuit.

Louder, and to ponies I couldn't see yet, "Hey everypony! I'm back!"

Hooves scampered across the floor as two much younger colts raced into view. They didn't look much like Raindrop, but they were happy to see her. Then they looked at me.

"Whoa! That human looks really cool!" They said together. Instantly, they spread their wings, and used them to leap onto me. I was caught by surprise, barely having any time to flinch as they grabbed hold of my arms and started climbing their way up to my shoulders.

Fucking hell. I thought these were ponies, not monkeys! I thought humorously.

"Get off of that thing!" A new voice yelled, "It could attack you at any moment!" I looked away from the two colts hanging from my shoulders to look at a green mare who was looking at me, horrified.

The kids voiced their complaints, but still obeyed. To help them out, I crouched down to make the distance down a little shorter.

"Mom, you know not all humans are aggressive. He's been nothing but a sweetheart to anypony that was nice to him." Raindrop countered.

"Really?! Look at those scars! Do you think anything with that many would be safe to be around?" She yelled.

I almost rolled my eyes at this. Many things could get terrible scars and be abused their whole lives, yet still be decent creatures or people. Dogs and cats came to mind.

Raindrop groaned, "Mom, he's been assigned to me to be my guard human. He's been with me the better part of the week, and he hasn't done anything besides sit with me and run during our PT sessions. Take it easy."

Her mother huffed, "Fine, but you will tie him up outside. I won't have it doing it's business on the floor, and I want him away from the boys, and especially away from the foals!"

The young boys moaned, one putting words into his complaint, "But he's so cool! Besides, he doesn't mind, right boy?"

I slowly blinked in his direction. One of the few ways a human could show care without contact, that I knew of, was blinking slowly. Raindrop, who'd been studying humans since she got me, took notice.

"Hey, mom, you know how cats show how they're happy by blinking slowly? It applies to humans too, and Achilles just did it."

Again, the mother huffed, but she didn't say anything further. Instead, she turned around, and left. The boys decided that was permission to play with me, so they were instantly latched onto me once more, babbling constantly over my artificial limbs and eyes.

I paid little mind to them, and made my way over to the couch to lay down, carefully so as to avoid laying on top of them. I yawned as I closed my eyes, and started falling asleep with the colts playing with my limp hands.

When I woke up, I was curled around the two boys who'd fallen asleep with me, covered in a warm, soft blanket. I cracked open my eyes as I looked around. On the other couch across from me was Raindrop, who was quietly mewing in her sleep. I smiled at the cute display and simply rested, basking in the warm glow of warmth, comfort and peace. It was a new feeling for me, one I hoped would never end. I had a good owner, and her siblings who seemed to like me. If only the mother was a little more receptive. Still, it was like a little slice of Heaven, just for me.

*Monday*

We were back at the training grounds. Raindrop was standing besides me outside of the building I had been branded in. I didn't know why we were here yet, since I was still asleep when Raindrop was given the order to take me here.

I hope it's not another branding. I don't know how much more of that I'll be able to take. I shivered as the memory rose up into my thoughts.

Eventually, it was our turn. We entered into the room, and were greeted by the same stallion who branded me.

"You here to get his armor fitted?" He asked.

Armor? I don't really think I really need any. Maybe for my torso and head, but I should be fine. Although, a shield would be nice.

Raindrop belted out, "Yes sir!" She sounded tired though, must not have gotten enough sleep last night. I could understand why too. The father of the household had come back after a business trip, and had grilled Raindrop for hours about me while also giving me several patience and aggression tests, waking me up to do it too.

The stallion took my leash in his magic, and led me towards an armor rack. He hummed in thought as he searched around for an armor set for me. It was obvious that he would be having a hard time. All the sets he had out were far too small for me. After he did some digging into a storage chest, he pulled out a set that looked like it might fit me. I was surprised by the appearance. The armor looked near identical to that worn by Ancient Greek warriors. More specifically, the Spartans.

The stallion tried fitting it on me, but the metal supports for my arms jutted out too far. They may be imbedded into my chest, but it still protruded out a bit. After a few quick adjustments using his magic, the armor fit, and he strapped it onto me. Then came the helmet, which while it did look like a Spartan helmet, didn't have the plume on top, but rather a metal fin that replicates the plume. This time, the piece fit rather well, and I could see fairly well past the nose guard and through the slits that allowed me to see. On my own accord, I tightened the strap below my jaw to keep it in place, and with a little slight of hand, detached my collar that had begun to itch. Next, he strapped on shoulder guards that nearly ran down to my elbows, bracers for my arms that did the same thing, and metal plates shin guards with an attached pair of sandals. For my thighs and waist, he gave me a sort of skirt-like thing with long metal plates hanging down from the belt. The stallion looked satisfied with my armor, but I wasn't. I didn't have a shield. Looking around, I actually spotted a massive shield that was in near perfect proportions to a shield the Spartans would carry. I walked over to it, ignoring the smithy' calls for me to stay, finally realized the collar was off. I grabbed hold of the shield and examined it. It looked sturdy, and it felt sturdy. I lightly punched the shield in the center. No dents, not even a scratch. It was sturdy.

I slipped my arm through the band that held onto my forearm, and grasped the handle. I felt complete now, safer than the crappy armor I was strapped with in the circuits.

I finally regarded the smith who was still yelling at me, demanding that I put down the shield. He stopped when I looked down at him though, instead staring at me with saucer wide eyes.

"Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into?" He asked, sounding mildly afraid. I reached out with my free hand and patted him gently on the head. Then, I walked off to the swords, leaving the smith looking stupified, and Raindrop trying to hold back a fit of giggles.

The selection of swords he had weren't too bad, though most of them were designed for ponies. A few were the perfect size for me, most notably, a Kopis, which was another Ancient Greek design which the Spartans relied on if they lost their spear in combat. This, I claimed for myself with the sheath and belt that accompanied it.

After attaching the belt, I drew out my new sword. It was truly a sinister blade. The metal was black in color, hardly shining off any light. The base of the blade was more or less straight, until the latter half of it dropped in for the slight curve to a sharp point. Under my helmet, I smiled. I twirled the sword back and forth a bit in my fingers and hand, feeling the weight of it through my arms. It felt right, like I would be hard pressed to find a better sword. I grunted in satisfaction before sheathing the blade at my hip.

Turning, I saw Raindrop and the smithy staring at me in wonder, the forges' light dancing across their fur and sparkling in their eyes. I could only imagine what I looked like, a giant compared to them dressed in mostly Spartan armor, staring down at them with glowing red eyes.

I stood there, waiting for one of them to make a move. Neither did for a few moments, until the smithy addressed Raindrop, "You know, I think that maybe he should keep that shield and sword. Even the minotaurs would have a hard time fighting him, especially with that enchanted shield."

Enchanted? Like D&D enchanted? Wonder what this has then.

Conveniently, Raindrop voiced my question for me, "What enchantment does it have?"

"It was enchanted to be heavily resistant to attacks that strike the shield, so you will be hard pressed to find a weapon that could dent it."

Nice! Oh boy, I'm gonna have some fun with you! I thought to my shield. In the few fights I'd been given a shield, they had been made of ancient wood that easily splintered, often times falling apart before the fight was over. This time, I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Raindrop whistled, "He's going to be a fricking juggernaut on the battlefield then!"

"Indeed he will be."

*Three weeks later*

The rest of training didn't have much of note. The ponies trained in combat, at one point me somehow convincing the ponies to spar with me using wooden weapons without giving myself away. Surprisingly, for being trained in combat, they were rather easy to beat. Although, it wasn't exactly fair since I used my shield.

Today, we were attending a graduation ceremony. OUR, ceremony. Raindrop somehow managed to get her hooves on a decorational spear for me to carry. It looked as though it had been made of bronze, lightly decorated with some jewels. I didn't like the looks of it, mostly since I doubted it would be any good in a combat situation.

We stood at attention in formation stock still. The pony overseeing the ceremony was giving a speech on how we had the honor of being Equestria's greatest force of strength as the elite guard. For the first time, I knew what this crazy country was called, and what force this was.

He babbled on for a while until he left the stage for a massive white horse with wings and a horn that wore a humble crown. She smiled warmly at the assembled guards, although I couldn't help but slightly cringe. I could feel how strong she was, and the ponies bowing to her didn't make me feel any better.

She spoke softly with warmth and love about how proud she was, and how she would be honored to be our commander in chief. This calmed my nerves a little. My Colonel back home had said similar things, only with much less emotion. This one, she seemed to mean what she said with how much emotion she let break through mostly through her words, but also with how she said every word with love.

The last thing she said though, chilled me, "I wish you all the best of luck when we go to war with the Minos Isles."