Chapters 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.
Ember Spark stood on her platoon lines and everyone was rushing to form up. Ember Spark was pissed off at having to form up at one in the morning and having her night guard shift for her floor in an hour; the night guard shifts were to ensure that no one went to the side of the opposite genders and that no one broke any of the rules. Ember looked to her left and saw a young lad who was smirking, "I wonder who caught fucking? I want to know if it's guy on girl or girl on girl... perhaps dude on dude."
"Shut the hell up fucker." Ember hissed under breath. Her shift was coming up, and the platoon normally would be wakened at four in the morning for physical fitness training. The dude looked over at Ember and had to comment about her figure.
"You got a sexy figure and I'd love to feel those assets of yours...I'd love it if you were to suck me off or let me massage my cock in that cleavage of yours." Ember Spark pivoted on her heel so swiftly and swung her dominant left forward and the perverted boy hit the concrete. Ember having done some jujitsu and judo performed a full mount and began to beat the crap of the boy.
" I told you Coal to shut the fuck up! and I'll never have sex with you!" Coal struck both hands forward; one hand hit Ember in the face whilst the other right into Ember's t-shirt. Ember recoiled and lunging backward placing a boot on Coal's crotch and leaping backward. "Bastard!" Ember screeched. The entire company watched as the fighting duo got ripped apart and Coal was looking smug. Ember Spark looked enraged and she looked like she was trying to keep from going on the attack.
The entire company was punished by three hours of correctional training. The correctional training ended and everyone got cleaned up and were glad they came in time for a weekend. Ember Spark sat against a wall rigid and anger still simmering. Ember quickly stood as she saw a pair of boots in front of her. Ember saw that it was Shining Armor and she snapped to attention and gave a salute. Shinning Armor returned the salute and motioned for Ember Dawn to follow him. "So kid, it's been less than twenty-four hours and you've been in two fights. Why are you so combative?"
"Sir...it's all I know, back home it's a fight to survive and quite literally. Between fighting my older step-siblings in self-defense or protecting my biological mother from my alcoholic stepfather almost every day. I also had to fight in school to stay alive. In the neighborhood I live in and go to school in I would get jumped like four times a dammed week. It also didn't help that I seemed to find the wrong type of friends either; I guess I can say that no one was looking out for me while I was trying to look out for my mother and her poor decisions. I was the result of one of my mother's bad choices, I don't know if I should keep protecting myself or should just step back and let fate do its thing while I set my sights higher. My record kept me of our junior military corpses at school; I read that the Equestrian military had a training division for the explosive ordinance and I also wanted to try to get my wings in a flight program."
"Well Ember I don't know the best answer for that but my sister and her friends might. However, remember they're officers as well and I can see if I can set up an appointment for you."
"Thank you, sir...but I feel like I'd waste their time."
"There's more potential in you than you even realize about yourself."
Four Weeks Later
Ember Spark and a fellow platoon mate were walking along the sidewalk on their weekend off when the Platoon mate, a girl named Topaz began to speak after some silence. "Rumor has it that you and Captain Shining Armor were talking at length four weeks ago. You do know that he is married right?" Ember froze in a rage and spun in her heel to the right and threw a straight left and her fist made contact. The two began to fight and a crowd gathered.
"You lying whore!" Princess Zipp a.k.a Sergeant Zipp to kids ran up and pulled the combatants apart. Ember still pissed off swung at the nearest thing and it stunned Zipp. Ember Spark had Topaz pinned to a nearby wall.
Ember Spark was shorter than Topaz but her vicious and rabid mentality which fed into her rage made her dominant. Zipp had to tackle Ember and slam her to the ground. Topaz tried to run but got stopped by Twilight Sparkle.
In a total time frame since being in the military school Ember had racked up a total of one hundred twenty fights in four months. Ember didn't know why she hadn't been expelled yet, but her gut instinct told her she had to make it through.
Three Days after Topaz and Ember Fought
Ember Spark sat under an overhang of rock trying her best to keep a low profile and stay away from the others. Ember had managed to steal an MRE and was snacking on it since she was currently starving and hadn't eaten in three days. This was because, at the dining hall, she had lost her ration of meals to the floor. Topaz and Coal had it out for her and Ember did what she had to do to survive. "You know that stealing rations on base or even from the company is a federal offense?" Ember quickly stood and forgetting where she sat hit her head on the rocky overhang.
Looking up Ember saw Zipp staring down at her. "I know it is sergeant..."
"I know you've been doing this for three meals a day three days so far this week. We all have noticed. However, the captain said to deal with it privately. Look kid from what the captain said you told him and what I have learned from researching you...you've been through a lot and worse in juvenile correction facilities. So Ember since you've stolen rations and government property I'm gonna have to lock you up for some time and have you work off the debt you owe for the stolen rations."
"Yes, sergeant" was all Ember Spark could say. Deep down Ember wanted to sleep and never wake up. In her mind, her life wasn't worth redeeming or trying to fix. Ember had often lost her fights with her stepdad and step-siblings and the trouble and abuse she suffered and having to watch her mother suffer made things worse. The Meal-Ready-to Eat or MRE was not her favorite to say the least, it was a spinach and alfredo and it was or might as well have been past expiration date. Ember followed Zipp to the MP station to get signed in for lock up and was assigned to detail to compensate for her stolen food. The stallions looked at Ember Spark and wondered how an attractive girl like this end up in such a deep hole.
"Ya know, Zephyr Breeze I think that Ember may end up at the top here, hell I know she's proabaly the most fucked up one here but I see her rising like a Phoenix."
"I know what you mean Blueblood...we'll have to see if she can rise above her past and such and become a good example."
Ember who heard the conversation scoffed in her mind; "Yeah right! Me improve that much has to be the worst joke ever. I'm too far gone."
Ember Spark was alone mopping the barracks and cleaning - alone except for one unlucky recruit having to babysit her. In frustration Ember saw two fellow classmates walking by swung the mop like a broad sword flooring the both of them. the classmate assigned to babysit Ember rushed forward to grab Ember and the two Ember hit leapt up and attacked: This felt familiar Ember Spark recalled.
Ten Years Prior
Ember Spark hated her step siblings, whenever her mother wasn't around they'd bully her to no end and she always ended up best up. Her stepfather didn't stop his kids and her mother couldn't do anything to protect her. School for Ember was no better, always four times a week and multiple times a day Ember got jumped and mauled. As time progressed, no one noticed that Ember was building her strength and stamina. Ember Spark's bullies were at least a foot taller than her and weighed more. Ember at home developed a rabid survival instinct and she became a torrential storm. The day Ember won her first fight was with her bullies who had jumped her; furthermore, it was a eight to one ratio and Ember managed to win but looked like complete shit.
Ember Spark went from being the prey - to being the hunter.
Eight Years Prior
Ember stood toe to toe with her stepfather, her mother behind her and her stepsiblings on the ground bleeding from where she used her teeth to tear small chunks of flesh loose. "Quit bashing my mother you stupid motherfuckin' cunt." Ember said as she stared down the two hundred fifty pound stallion of muscle.
The stallion slapped her so hard and with such force she crumpled up. Ember Spark leapt up when her rage kicked in after the initial shock. She tore into the stallion with such veroscity that no matter how many times she got slammed into the wall or onto the ground she got up and attacked. She finally won when she tore one of the stsllion's ears off.
Ember Spark - Age 14
Ember stood in the lines of a correctional facility again, ever since she was eight she was always in trouble with the law and now in the Juvy system. She was arrested for killing her stepsiblings in one of their many fights. Her mother finally passed away when the stress and horrors of home got to her. Ember's stepfather was mauled to death by her own hands. Ember was had it on her records of bad choices to run with gangs and vandalizing property. Ember was on special watch as she was also into cutting herself - what had brought this on was her guilt of not protecting her mother better. Many kids in the juvenile system nicknamed her "Rabid Demon".
Ember Spark - Age 15
Ember Spark was arrested this time for assaulting a cop when he had searched her for stolen merchandise from a store. Besides juvenile Ember was falling behind in her school grades and by the kindness of her judge Ember was having a rough go in military schools. Besides her fights in Juvy her abuse was always getting worse than prior years.
Ember Spark stood front of a female pegasus and the female pegasus stood at a heigh of five feet ten inches compared to Ember's four feet eleven inches. Voices around the pair were audible. "Quartz is insane to face off with the Rabid Demon!" and other phrases were also going around.
Ember never threw the first hit in her fights so she could attempt to call it self defense. "Look bat bitch, move aside."
"Nope" Ember said flipping off the pegasus and spitting on her. Quartz swing hard and fast and Ember dodged and countered. The fight ended as it usually did with Ember in solitary confinement and battered by the guards.
Ember - Age 17
Ember now seventeen and drawing up on her eighteenth birthday had been held back due to bad grades. News came up the grape vine that she was going to the toughest military school there was and it was her finally her last chance. Ember was covered in scars from her years of fighting and losing most her fights since she was sixteen; tin addition, these scars included her suicide attempts. Ember knew when she turned eighteen she was legally an adult and those guards she heard were perverts.
Current Time four months prior
Ember was in solitary confinement again awaiting to be sent to her knew school. Ember being eighteen meant that the guards took to her quickly, sometimes one or two - but since turning eighteen and for the past month it was one or two like before but more frequently it was usually five or more. She knew it usually depended on when the guards had their breaks and had time to abuse her sexually. Ember was always locked in solitary confinement for assaulting her guards while trying to protect herself.
Current Time
Her two classmates struggled to keep her on the ground while her other classmate tried desperately to separate them all. Emebr Spark froze as she saw movement and she was tackled by Sgt Zipp and the other two got tackled by Shining Armor and Zephyr Breeze. The classmate, a unicorn named Topaz leaned on the wall bleeding from her nose, and a dislocated shoulder. "Damn you Ember Spark! They should just fucking try you as an adult and give you life with parol!"
Zipp had to yell to be heard, "Topaz! Quiet over there, don't make things worse!" This fight was different, Ember just collapsed to the ground and and just knelt there, her memories of how she got to where she was were flooding in.
Ember wondered if she could out run her past and rise like a Phoenix like some of the other officers and ncos wanted her to do.
