Gonna Go Far Kid

Ember Spark stood in one of four lines, and in her left hand held a folder with her documents, and immediately by her right foot sat her duffle bag and backpack. “You are in the position of attention; on my next command, place your folder on your backpack!” The stallion giving the command was white with a dual-tone blue mane; Ember knew by rank insignia that he was a captain. “You have sixty seconds to place your folder on your backpack and tuck your shirts in without undoing your belts…now move!” Ember moved quickly, and she noticed one girl undo her belt, and the button on her jeans, and the captain lost it. “Position of attention move - half right face - front leaning rest position move! Did I not give the order to keep your belts fastened? Your comrade here disregarded my order and flashed the whole airport! In cadence! 1…2…3…” The count went every time he said one after three. It was considered one rep of the push-up, for every rep they did was two push-ups. The Captain’s aide was a sergeant, and she walked up to Ember Spark and knelt.

“Captain, this one here is also going to be trouble. I see the fire of rage in her eyes. However, if we break her down she might be redeemable.” The captain wrote the comment in a notebook he drew from a cargo pocket.

“Fuck you sergeant!” Ember Spat out under her breath. The captain saw the interaction and he was not thrilled.

“Platoon, position of attention move! Platoon The mountain climber!” The platoon was now doing mountain climbers, “Because miss Ember Spark wants to curse my staff you can now thank her.” Ember Spark felt looks of hate aimed at her. Ember in her anger at her life attacked the sergeant who leapt back and spread her wings to get airborne, Ember shot skyward and the pair struggled a bit until the seargeant slammed Ember onto the ground.

“Captain….let me break this one myself!” The Sergeant was fuming now and Ember stared the pegasus down with equal rage.

“Position of attention move! You have thirty seconds to gather your gear and board my bus! Move!” Ember grabbed her luggage and folder sprinted for the bus and halted in the position of attention because the order to actually board the bus hadn’t been given. Ember felt the breath of the sergeant beside her.

“How many times have you been in a military institution?’

“First time seergeant…..juvenile correction facilities twelve times sergeant.”

“I see, I might be able to redeem you, a few of you already show signs of needing extra correctional training before we can start buidling you back up again.” The sergeant looked at the captain who nodded. “Platoon you fill my bus from back to front and leave no empty seats. front load your backpacks and there will be no talking for the duration of the ride. Now Move!” Ember never let her speed down, she had learned from her juvenile correction facility days that if you move slow it’ll make things worse. Ember was now eighteen and legally an adult, her past experiences were unsavory she dealt with abuse.

The captain and the sergeant stood outside of the bus talking. “Shining Armor sir, Ember Spark is obviously disrepects authority, for no proper training she has decent skill - most of our kids wouldn’t be able to hold their own against me and you saw that it took five minutes for me to get advantage to bring her down. requesting permission to look into her past? i need the clearence to get her files and every scrap of security footage possible. pardon for using this card, but can your wife get me the clearence?”

“Cadence probably would give it to you if you ask yourself….so you and i both saw that Ember isn’t the typical rebel child or teen. The girl has scars typical of someone who has fought to survive not like the few we have who - you know where i’m going.” The sergeant nodded and the pair boarded the bus. The bus ride was silent until the boy next to Ember, a lad who was of draconian decent decided he was bored and jammed his elbow into Ember.

“What the actual fuck you bastard!” Ember shouted as she retaliated and struck back.

“Ember Spark! Coal! Center of the bus! Move! Front leanin rest position move!” Ember and the boy named Coal were stuck doing push ups for the duration of the bus ride. Coal hit his breaking point stopped, Ember with the agression and anger still bottled up from when the girl had undone her belt and jeans stopped as well rolled onto her back and sent both he feet clad in tactical boots into the boy’s face. Ember froze when she felt herself in a choke hold. Ember began to try the tap out method to see if the person restraining her would ease up. Coal kept fighting his captor. The grip lessened and she was forced to a standing postion and a deep baritone voice spoke into her ear.

“You’re lucky that me and Sergeant Zipp Storm are dealing with you. Once on base you’ll have to deal with Captain Spitfire and her team…” Shining Armor left the sentence hanging and forced Ember into her seat. Coal wa still fighting and Zipp Storm was trying to resist the urge to choke Coal out ending him.

The Base

Once on the base she saw who she assumed was Spitfire, Rainbow Dash she recognized one NCO she noted was a threstral like her he stood off to the side with three other threstrals who were quiet attractive. Ember knew that it four NCOs per platoon and she figured the threstrals were the ones who got the worst of the batch. “Okay when we stop get off my damned bus and listen for your name and you will go to that platoon!” Now get your stuff and get off my bus!” In the chaos she heard her name coming from the platoon with the threstrals and she saw Zipp handing paperwork to the male threstral. Ember Spark saw the other NCOs and their name tags seven that she could read the easiest from her distance for example were name like, Sunset Shimmer Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack. Ember studied her NCOs and learned their names. One had red wings, raven black hair and skin white as snow had a tag that named Snowflake Obsidian, another was grey with a dual tone yellow mane had the name Firebrand, and the third was dark brown with a dark brown mane with red ends wore a flower in her mane had the name Star Shadow. All eyes turned to her as she stood at attention on the line at her feet. Snowflake Obsidian strode up to her and looked her over.

“You’re all sorts of fucked up…I can fix that.” Snowflake Obsidian turned on her heel joined her fellow officers. Ember noted she was in the same platoon as Coal and the girl from earlier who she learned as named Cherry Blossom. The chaos settled and role call was taken. Knuckles stopped in front of Coal and told him to change places with another girl named Sandstone. “Company! you have two minutes to get your stuff dumped out for a search, if you have contraband this is your last time to get rid of it! Now dump your bags!”

Over the next few minutes everything was searched and packed back up; everyone soon picked up their stuff and scrambled into their respect of barracks, girls on one side and the boys on the other. Once everyone had their stuff on their bunks they bolted down the two flights of stairs and back to their formation lines. Their lines had a backpack with the necessary equipment they would need for their classes. “Before you is a backpack filled with schooling gear, if you lose any of it you will have to pay for a replacemement.In addition, if any of you put hands on each other you will be repremended and punished accordingly. Grab your packs and prepare for chow! Move!” Chow hall food was nothing to write home about and it was pretty basic and that had its own rules as well. Most of the kids there were in complete shock about their treatment except for Ember Spark…the only thing she hated about this scenario in her life was that her NCOs kept a close eye on her and she knew that they knew more about than they will ever let on.