Chapter 26:
Recruits
Ponies were working all around me as I sat in the corner of the barn I was in, cleaning up after themselves and putting in the last finishing touches. It had been requisitioned for me to use as a base, the workponies had made it livable for me and any trainees that would be coming my way. Besides the ponies all around me, I also got some more equipment from the Princesses and they promised to send some officers to help set up and run everything.

I cracked open one of the three big cases that had been delivered to me from Vanhoover by the re-stationed R&D unit. I’d send them some designs and updates to work on a while back and now went to see what the result was. The message that was attached to the package noted that the team had dubbed the rifles ‘MK1-Special’, or MK1-S for short. As far as looks went the design I’d sent wasn’t unlike the Russian Dragunov rifle, just a little more adapted for hooves. A scope was included along with chanted iron sights, the barrel also being a little longer than the regular MK1, and lastly a bigger cartridge for more stopping power.

“Oh, these babies are going to be great,” I smirked as I racked the bolt experimentally and pressed the trigger to hear it click. It was much lighter than its size suggested, something that would help with carrying but I wondered what it’d do for the recoil. I had gotten eight of the prototypes along with a large number of munitions to fire off and some spare replacement parts, enough for my purposes right now.

I’m gonna have to figure out what the ballistics are before I really get to teach to shoot these...

“Sir, there’s a group of guards outside,” A worker who’d approached me stated, looking rather uncomfortable as he glanced at the new rifle. “They said they wanted to speak to you.”

“Thank you,” I stated, placing the rifle back and sealing the box again. Magic wards would keep anyone but me from accessing them. “I’ll be back later to check up on the progress.”

Making my way out it wasn’t hard to find the group of five guards standing there, four of them being batponies from the Lunar guard and one a unicorn from the Solar equivalent. “I assume you’re captain Grey then,” The solar guard stated as he spotted me first and saluted. “Lieutenant Bright Flash, sir.”

Wait, hold up, captain? I did not get that memo...

The unicorn continued before I could inquire further. “The princesses sent me and my colleague here to support you in your training efforts.” He pointed at a more decorated looking lunar guard who stepped forward next to his solar colleague.

“Lieutenant Crimson Moon,” he stated.

“Good to have the two of you, help will definitely lessen my burden,” I stated, rolling with the punches for now, I’d figure out the rank change later. The two officers weren’t going to be of much help with the technical material, Rainbow would be more useful on that front, but they could help with the more mundane physical activities and logistics. “So who are... these?” I was surprised to actually recognise two of the batponies by face and scars on their wings where they’d been cut. “You two were part of the team in Griffinstone.” They both sprung to attention.

“Private Midnight Dagger, sir!”
“Private Datura, sir!”

“They were the first to volunteer after we started probing possible candidates,” Crimson Moon explained, my eyes falling on the third batpony who’d kept his distance from the other two. “And then there’s him.” I detected a very large hint of disapproval in the captain’s voice.

The stallion bowed his head a little and smirked. “Call me Cypher.”

And there’s my changeling.

“So what makes the Queen send you in particular?” I stated, noticing confusion on both Midnight and Datura’s faces, they would be brought into the circle of confidence soon enough.

His smirk turned into a scowl as he straightened up. “My failure in Canterlot. She has her way of punishing and... well this posting will be frowned upon by others.”

“Because you will have to reveal yourself to one not of your own kind?” He nodded. I didn’t press further as I went to address them all. “At ease. You all have equipment with you?”

“A little,” Bright Flash nodded, pointing over to a line of bags standing a small way back.

“I want you all to line it all out so we can immediately ditch the stuff we do not need. Pick an open space around here to get started, I need to get some things from around town and will be back in a bit,” I stated as I’d have to pick up Gilda from town and Rarity had begrudgingly created a clawful of camouflage fatigues for me. The four guards saluted, Cypher though just nodded.

We’ll fix that in due course.

As they went about their business I opened my wings and flew in the direction of Ponyville, soon landing at the lodging where Gilda had been staying and knocking on the door.

“Coming!” I heard from the other end, the door opening to reveal Gallus standing in the doorway. The little griffin looked much healthier than when I’d first met him in Griffinstone, his ribs no longer showing through his fur. “Hi, Jack!”

“Hi kiddo,” I chuckled, ruffling his head feathers. “I’m looking for Gilda, is she home?”

He nodded and called out to the older griffin, Gilda looking into the hallway moments later and spotted me. “Is it time?”

“Yes. The others are here and the barn is pretty much done,” I told her. She’d been in the barn before and was kept a little better up to date by me courtesy of already living in town. She’d also been measured up by Rarity so her fatigues would fit properly, while the rest would have to deal with more universally sized clothes.

“Guess I’ll drop the kids off and join you down there,” She stated looking back to Gallus who’d been listening in.

“I expect you to be there by tonight, understood?”

“I’ll be there, don’t you worry. I agreed to this after all,” Gilda waved off. “But we’re both burning time, I made a deal with Applejack to take in the kids while I trained under you. Gotta move a bunch of stuff over to the farm now so I should get going.”

“Agreed. I’ll see you tonight.” Leaving Gilda to do her thing, I made my way over to the boutique to pick up the clothes I’d asked for. The little bell hanging at the door rung as I entered, Rarity’s voice coming from upstairs telling me that she’d be right down.

“Oh, it is you,” was the first thing Rarity stated as she saw who’d enter her store. “I’ll get your package.” It didn’t take long for her to get my order, two very well packaged bundles as not to show what was inside. “Just know the only reason I made these horrid things is the desperate state my country is in, I would much rather have you requisition these from the guard instead.”

“I have commissioned items to be made in Canterlot but I am still waiting on them, I needed to make sure these would not be late. They’re the bare minimum I needed. I’ll try to avoid sending you these kinds of commissions as much as I can.”

“Thank you, and I wish you good luck,” Rarity stated with a relieved sigh.

I bowed my head down a little. “I should be back on my way. I’ll see you around, Rarity.” The quick exchange over and goods transferred left me with a final location to visit but that didn’t mean I’d find the pony was looking for there. Rainbow for better or worse had a bad habit of finding random clouds to nap on and nowadays she first made it so that said cloud would look completely inconspicuous.

A great skill to have when creating moveable cover in the sky, not so great when I have need of you, Rainbow.

As predicted Dash was not at home, though I got a hint to what she may have been doing after finding a MK1 missing along with her green BDU and ghillie.

I wonder if she’s at the range...

I hadn’t heard any gunfire all day but that didn’t mean Dash wasn’t practicing. We’d been going over all the material we’d covered together and some new things I’d learn to her too. Maybe she was just practicing for when the recruits arrived, which was now the case. Setting off again, I flew in the direction of my small rage, having to dodge some large clouds to get there. The weather nowadays wasn’t as perfect as when I first arrived, so many pegasi having been pulled off of weather duty that wild clouds were able to drift over Equestria. The sights of large banks of clouds far, far up in the sky more reminiscent of Earth weather.

“Rainbow?! Are you here?!” I called out as she was nowhere in sight even here at the range. “Come on you mare, I don’t feel like knocking on every cloud to figure out if you’re sleeping in it...”

“Hey, Jack! Back here!” I jumped around to see a bush, or rather a fully ghillied-up Rainbow Dash, standing up not more than ten meters away. She pulled back the mesh in front of her face and hood, smirking at me victoriously with her camouflaged face and hair. “You really didn’t see me, did you?”

“I’ve got to admit I didn’t,” I chuckled in reply as she hung her rifle around her barrel and pushed her wings from under the suit through some slots She’d been designing.

“So what’s up? You were looking for me?”

“The new recruits are here,” I simply said, a look of glee finding its way onto Rainbow’s face.

“So we’re starting soon?” she asked giddily, I nodded.

“I actually want to start tomorrow, get going as fast as possible.”

“Well duh, of course, we shouldn’t waste time! Did you get Gilda yet?” She asked with excitement, jumping up into a hover and clearly ready to fly off.

“Done that, she’ll be with us by the evening. We can actually fly over to the barn and meet the others,” I told her, she let out a squee and did a little loop. “Remember what I told you about how to behave?”

“Professionally, I know,” she rolled her eyes. “Because I’m your second in command until further notice. We had this conversation, remember?”

“Just reminding you,” I chuckled, taking to the air as well, taking the lead in flying back towards the barn. “You have your beret with you?”

“Do you even have to ask? Dash asked as we came into view of our destination, from the distance we were at I could see the workers loading the last of their equipment onto the cart while the guard had laid out the little bit of equipment they had with them some way away. I landed near the workers first, getting confirmation from them they were done before making my way over to the guards. They had a little clothing, some grooming products, and a bunch of blades. They were still wearing their armour though.

“Sir, who’s that?” Bright Flash asked with a frown as he noticed Rainbow following me closely. “And what in the world is she wearing?”

“Camouflage,” Rainbow cooly replied as she made sure her red beret was correctly fixed onto her head. “And my name’s Rainbow Dash.”

I could see the two privates’ eyes widen as they heard that name. “You were the pegasus that flew us out of Griffinstone!”

“She’s indeed that pegasus and she’ll be one of the instructors alongside myself teaching all of you,” I stated, making sure my own clothing was properly in place.

“Captain, is she even a member of the guard?” Bright Flash frowned, his concern shared by his lunar colleague.

I could see Dash’s jaw tightening but she held her tongue. Good Rainbow, don’t lash out at them. They have no idea what you’ve already done... They also called me captain again, I really should get an update from Luna if there’s been a change that I’ve been left completely in the dark about. “She is not. Something I intend to rectify quite soon, but do not think she is not cut from the right wood. I have trained her myself and have already been in direct combat with Rainbow Dash and have no problem placing my life in her hooves if it comes down to it.”

The two lieutenants straightened up. “Understood, sir.”

“Good.” Turning my attention back to the two privates who’d been standing and watching silently I addressed them. “The armour can be put into the barn’s storage, I am expecting a different armour package to arrive any day now.” Opening my bags, I pulled out the packages of clothing Rarity had made for me, opened them up, and sorted out the clothes by type. “These are what everyone will be wearing around here from now on. They are your battle fatigues and form the camouflage base.”

Midnight, Datura, and Cypher all picked out two sets of the camouflaged clothing, the two lieutenants though did not. “Everyone will be wearing these,” I stated, looking over at the two officers.

“We- Yes, sir.” The protest died in Bright Flash’s throat before it got further than that, I expected that they would bring this back up in private though. My attention was pulled behind me though as Gilda came down and walked over to the group.

“So these are the ponies I’ll be working with, huh?” She stated as she joined the group.

“You are and you’ll get to introduce yourselves to each other soon. Grab those clothes and follow me. That goes for all of you, grab your gear and bring it inside to your rooms.” Everyone got to gathering their gear and made their way inside, a quick tour later the four trainees were together in their room while the two lieutenants and Rainbow had joined me in my office/living space.

“Captain, do you really expect us to wear these things?” Crimson Moon asked, holding out the camouflaged clothing.

“I do. As long as you’re here with me I expect them to be worn. You may not appreciate them right now but in due course you’ll start to understand their usefulness,” I stated. “We will be working on a completely new doctrine for a guard unit here so expect there to be things that’ll go against what you know of how the guard is run. You may be instructors here but you too will be taught new things along with the recruits.”

They still didn’t look completely satisfied but at least nodded. “So what will our jobs be around here then?”

“For one I’ll need a quarter master, most of the actual lessons of substance will be given by me and Dash as we’re the only two who actually know about the material so we don’t have the time,” I stated getting to business.

“That’ll be me then,” Bright Flash stated. “I have some experience handling logistics from previous postings, I’ll make sure we all don’t starve.

“Good, you might get on that task quick because I only made sure there was enough for a day or two,” I told him, “I could also use somepony to help schedule. I’ve been working on it but I have been occupied with lots of things lately.”

“I’ll give a hoof with that, along with any other administrative issues,” Crimson Moon stated. “But that’s not exactly going to fill up all my time.”

“Once things start rolling we’re going to need to keep our eyes on the recruits anyhow. With just the four of us we’ll find enough work to fill our days,” I stated.

“So what will I be doing?” Dash asked, having listened in until now.

“Physical exercise. You get to take them out on runs and make sure they’re in tip top shape. And you’ll also be teaching them when I’m not available or need a claw,” I told her, getting her very excited. “Don’t completely destroy them on day one, build it up so they’ll get used to the strain.”

“Of course, but they are part of the guard already. They should be able to handle some things.”

“Just making sure here,” I said defensively. “Today and tomorrow will be slow days and I expect to run into more issues as we figure out how to manage this but by next week I’m hoping the real work gets to start, we’ve got enough material we need to cover.”

“We better get started then. I’ll be out in town to make sure our food supplies are in order, after that we should figure out what alternative equipment we need so I can requisition it,” Bright Flash stated.

“Agreed. Redress into the right clothes and get to it. I expect to see you back here to work on that schedule, lieutenant Moon. Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir!” the two lieutenants said and left the room to go do their thing, Rainbow remaining behind.

“So when were you going to tell me about that promotion?” Dash smirked.

“Honestly I hadn’t even been informed I had been promoted, something I will be asking Luna to explain very shortly via dragonfire candle,” I groaned, rubbing my feathered temples. “I’ve sort of been just winging it. I’m no officer, Dash, I’m a grunt at heart and I hope that I haven’t been screwing up too bad.”

“Hey, in my eyes you’ve been doing great,” Dash chuckled, moving closer and placing a kiss on my beak. “I couldn’t even tell you were winging it. So anything I should be doing?”

I sighed as there was one thing that would need to be done before we started anything. Better rip the bandage off right now. “Yes actually, remember that changeling we took down in Canterlot in Thorax’s room?” Rainbow nodded. “He is the batpony stallion, his name’s Cypher. I need you to reveal himself to the others, if he remains concealed and the others find out later it’ll become a massive trust problem.”

Dash breathed in deep. “That’s going to be fun. Anything else?”

“After you’ve gotten them introduced take the four of them out for exercise, preferably something that requires teamwork,” I explained, already seeing the gears turning in Dash’s head. “I know you’re old friends with Gilda but I expect you to detach your personal feelings while working with them, it’ll be better for them in the long term.”

“I know, I know, you also do that with me when we go do new stuff. I’ll get to it, see you around.”

With Dash leaving for the sleeping quarters I pulled out a blank parchment, starting my letter to the princess. I was really eager for some answers.

Author's Note

Another one, working hard on pumping out stuff now, want to finish some stories and make good progress with others.

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.