Author's Note

This chapter was reviewed by an editor! Sorry if you read the story and it gets reviewed and edited midway.

Seamless Spotlight

“Ugh!”

Sonia grunted as she collapsed on to the floor, dropping an M14 replica rifle. She had been working her ass off since the morning, she had been put through grueling and heavy amounts of physical and mental challenges. She growled as she let out a cough. She wished day and night to have been born a normal filly rather than be put through this for the foreseeable future. She grabbed her rifle and turned around only to be met with a slap across the face, causing her to drop her gun and she collapsed again, looking up at her abuser. Her father towered over the small filly with his bulky frame. He had a scowl on his face and glared daggers into her soul. Sonia instinctively flattening her ears against her head.

“God damn it you stupid filly! Can’t do anything right! Try again!” He said before turning around and flying to his tower.

Sonia grabbed her rifle and got up, her body aching from the abuse she put herself through throughout the day. She turned to her sister who was looking at her from the tower, with eyes full of fear. She was only 12-years-old. Once she turned 13 she’d be going through the same thing Sonia was. Her mother, however, didn’t think she had it in her because every time a gun went off she jumped or flinched.

“Move it, Sonia! Time’s ticking!” Yelled her father once more. She sighed and galloped back past the sandbags and up and over shallow trenches just behind some of the sandbags to reach the beginning of the course. This was a grounded course, meaning she wasn’t allowed to use her wings to simulate a wing injury or if one is to be removed due to injury meaning she would have to utilize speed and her surroundings to keep herself from being shot. She turned around, her ears perking up and her pupils turning a deep red. She looked immediately at her surroundings while she got the chance to plan a route; Two trenches just behind a small stack of sandbags to her immediate right. She looked past that and then got into stance. She had a layout now of what she was going to do. She got ready and waited for the starting gun to go off.

“Three... Two....” counted down her father before he shot the gun and Sonia started running soon after.

The gunner at the end of the course was shooting a paintball machine gun firing approximately 200-250 paintballs per minute. There was no crack like an ordinary gun as the paintball left the gun, meaning it was virtually silent. Though, the paintballs it fired were anything but silent. For a moment as she began to run, the course was silent, though eventually once the paintballs known as “Poppers” fired by the gunner hit small objects and pieces of cover, it erupted the course with loud cracks. You see, these paintballs were anything but normal, they were filled with popper fluid. It was a liquid chemical that once on impact would pop, creating a small explosion on impact and making that deafening crack a gun usually would.

Sonia winced as the rounds exploded on her cover and around her because being hit by one hurt like hell. It wouldn’t leave you very injured aside from small cuts and large bruises. Soon she got tired of waiting. She jumped over her cover then some trenches and crates left throughout the course easily, getting to the cover to cover section without getting shot. As she neared some cover she tripped on one of the trenches. She nearly fell but managed to get to a sandbag, much closer to her target now. As she attempted to run to a better cover angle she was shot once in the chest, causing her to lose her breath. Most ponies would drop to the ground after being shot, but she didn’t stop. She wasn’t about to run this course again.

The impact of the popper against the cover she was behind left her ears ringing, but she couldn’t stop and she waited till the gunner had to reload and sprinted out of cover, grabbing her rifle and aiming it at the gunners head. She shot and the popper round hit him in between the eyes. She heard the sound of a small crack and then the collapse of the stallion. A buzzer sounded off and the stallion stood up, removing his helmet and inspecting it before using his magic to give her a thumbs up. Sonia panted, looking back at her father and seeing him smile. Sonia’s pupils would flicker from red to blue, before settling on blue. She headed back to the start, her father pulling out a knife and cutting off the rope from her wings.

“Well fucking done, Sonia! See? I knew my little princess could do it.” He said with a grin on his face.

Sonia repeatedly gasped for air and silently wished she could shoot her dad. She put a hoof onto her chest and pulled it away noticing there was a little bit of blood staining it.

“Get my princess a couple of bandages! She’s earned a patch up.” He said after inspecting her wounds.

Sonia saw as a couple of the colts who were training to be combat medics run over, motioning her to lay down and rollover. She did as she was told and sighed, pulling her hooves close to her body. She felt the colts work on her, one of them working quickly, while the other putting his hooves in places where... he didn’t have to. Sonia opened her eyes, looking over at the hoof that was working on her leg injury from the popper from the first run. The colt was rubbing her rump, his eyes filling up with lust. She kicked him in the snout and yelled;

“The hell are you looking at pervert!? Patch me up! I’m not eye candy!”

He yelped and collapsed, covering his snout as he curled up on the ground. Her father came over and picked up the colt, dragged him away, and gave him a screaming any pony would fear receiving. The other colt however kept working professionally. When he was done, she sighed before getting up and thanking the colt. She walked over to her father, letting him know she was okay now. She looked at the colt and glared at him, the colt looking at her before crawling away, a group of recruits looked over at her, with harsh glares Combat medics in the compound had a bad reputation for their recruits, but they were nothing compared to the veteran colts and fillies, or stallions and mares. Those were the ones that would go on to either become full-on soldiers or mercenaries for the best of the crews in the faction of the night.

VSGR, or, Veteran Shadow Gun Runners, were usually the ones that thought they were hot shit because, well, they were. They were the toughest, strongest, and most resilient of the compound. Sonia hated them, they hated her, just like a divorced couple. Sonia always found herself in trouble because of them, not because of her work ethic, but because they kept harassing her. Everyone knew who Sonia was, just like everyone knew who Cassius was. Cassius, her father, was the leader of the faction itself. He oversaw the entire compound and oversaw everything that happened between the night faction and the day faction. Usually, the night faction was known as ‘Shadows’ due to their bond love of the night.

Day factions were the enemy in the Shadow’s eyes. The day faction called themselves "Angels" even though a majority of the night faction called them "Day Devils" because of how much they hated each other. Ever since the fight between the Princesses, firefights and crime increased as ponies began to choose whose side to be on. Those on the middle ground were the ones that would try and fight against both sides. Sonia never understood how the whole fight started, or why she was going through all the hell she was going through.

She didn’t question it however, it didn’t matter to her. She was never informed why they were in the night faction, why the fight ever took place, or why she was supposed to hate daylight fighters. She just did what she was told and she’d be treated right. At least, that’s what she was told even though she was still smacked around, hit, yelled at, and more by her parents. Her mother specifically.

Sonia wasn’t only treated poorly by her parents, due to their high expectations for her, but everyone hated her. Only a small few saw her for the filly she was, and that was a filly that had no choice. A few of the colts who hated her would grope, spank, steal small kisses, and get away with touching her whenever they could. Usually, she’d stay quiet because her father wasn’t around. It would usually be her mother, and she would slap her if she fought back against the colts or stallions who would touch her, calling it ‘unladylike’ in front of the colts. This made them bolder around her mother. If she could help it, she'd stay around her father when any of these colts were nearby.

Sonia trotted towards her house, flapping her wings a little to stretch them out. Having them roped up tight hurt but it felt really nice to stretch them once they were free. Looking around, she noticed many of the ponies were either really young fillies and colts or brand new twenty-one-year-old stallions. It was almost a miracle most of them hadn’t seen action yet, especially after the increase of gunfights.

Sonia looked over at her sister who was standing on the other side of her father, getting a small earful about how ‘You should be more like your sister!’ and ‘Your sister never jumped at the sound of gunshots!’ God. He was such an asshole sometimes. He didn’t know how the little filly felt, let alone why she was so terrified. Sonia saw her sister look over at her as they trotted and Sonia’s pupils turned from a light blue to a light purple as she opened her eyes. Sonia couldn’t smile due to some disorder her parents told her she had, but her eyes would change color to show emotion. Purple represented comfort and calm and they changed to this when Sonia felt comfortable or tranquil.

“Fermata! Pay attention to me when I’m speaking!” Her father yelled.

Fermata Sky, a small 12-year-old filly was just a filly who didn’t want to die fighting for something she didn't believe in. She squealed and prepared to be smacked. Sonia wanted to say something but she knew she’d just get a smack, too. She winced as she heard the loud smack and her sister squealing again. The rest of the walk home was quiet and Fermata didn’t look up at all. Sonia thought to herself, 'One day, he'll be on the other end.'

Sonia sat on her bed in her room. Her house wasn't actually that large, granted it was still very big. It wasn’t very different than a normal pony's house either. The only difference was the size of the rooms themselves. Her bedroom was large and had its own bathroom and a rather large closet full of expensive clothing such as school uniforms - that she personally liked due to their appearance - plus hair bows and other accessories that she enjoyed dressing with. The maids in the house were the only kind souls that help her pick out clothing. Sonia was never truly happy unless she was with one of the kind older maids or Cinnamon, who Sonia thought of as a true mother.

She sighed, standing on her bed, and gently jumped to the ground. Sonia turned and looked over at her window, her eyes turning a light purple. A colt gently hovered with his hoof under his chin, the other perched on the edge of the window. He snickered as Sonia looked at him and her eye color gave away her emotion.

"Missed me that much? You know I can't visit you every night." He said with his dumb yet deep voice.

"I-I didn't say anything!" Sonia said. Her eyes turned light pink, signifying small hints of shyness, love, or lust. In this case, it was shyness mixed with love.

A small smirk adorned the dorky colt’s face, making Sonia huff in embarrassment and look away. He had a way with words that she just couldn't describe. He had a sleek backcombed mane that dark mint green with darker turquoise blue streaks. His coat was also the same as the streaks in his tail.

"Can I come in? Or did I already burn that bridge?"

He slowly glided in and landed just in front of her. He was an idiot and a bit arrogant, but that's what she loved about him. He was serious when he needed to be, strong when he needed to be, loving and kind when he was just him. For a colt, he was very well kept and well-mannered.

"I hate you, d-dumbass," Sonia said with a bright red face.

"How can you hate me? Sleek Turquoise! I'm handsome and amazing!" He said proudly, jokingly nudging Sonia.

"You also said I was a good kisser."

Sonia's ears turned a bright red and immediately she turned and faced him, her mouth ready to say something. She tried to but her vocal cords forced her not to. Her heart was beginning to race faster than it would race during training. She huffed again and looked into his eyes, her glare turning into embarrassment after a few seconds. Sleek leaned in and locked lips with her before stepping away and floating around her room.

"So, got any plans tonight?" He said, nonchalantly. He wasn't blushing nor was he embarrassed, merely smiling and happy. Sonia on the other hand seemed to be having a small issue. She grabbed his tail and yanked him down, making him give an instinctive squeak before landing. He turned around and pouted angrily but was cut off as he met the lips of the filly again. This time he turned red.

Within a couple of minutes, the two were sitting side to side on the bed nuzzling each other lovingly. He held her close with his head perched on hers, causing her ears to gently press back against her head. She sighed, her back collapsing onto the bed and her eyes stared up at the ceiling. She looked over at the colt and he simply looked back, smiling.

"You look beautiful with your pink pupils,"

Sleek said in a soft tone. Sonia simply stared back, her eyes tearing up as she slowly mumbled something.

"Even... though I can't smile?"

She looked away, back at the ceiling. Sleek stared at her still, his smile growing timid.

"Of course, you're my star,"

He slowly got up, standing over her and looking down at her eyes, "You idiot."

Sonia looked up at him, his eyes gazing into hers and hers looking right back. Their lips slowly closing the gap between each other as they prepare to lock lips once more.

Suddenly, the door handle turned, and another pony peeked in.

“Wh-What is going on here!” Asserted that all too familiar female voice.