Hell Diver had barely grown up. She aged, sure, but she definitely didn't win the biological lottery. Her dark grey coat was hidden behind her armor's fabric and plates, her helmet equally covering her face and her mane. Ironically both matching colours of yellow and black hidden behind the armored face of the same colours.

The other cadet leaned over in her seat to her, "I can't believe we're finally going to become Tartarus Divers."

Hell didn't want to converse. That didn't bother the other pony though.

"Liberating the galaxy? Stomping bugs? Every foals dream." The mare bounced her hooves in front of her in excitement.

Before she could continue bothering the Hell Diver, Hell's helmet radio bleeped at her, and the pilot's voice came through, "Approaching the LZ, next recruit, prepare to dismount."

Hell leaned forwards against her restraints and unbuckled them. Falling onto the metal grating as the aircraft landed and the ramp opened. The mare continued, "Good luck out there." She waved towards Hell as she made her way out of the ship.

She heard a clipped, "See you on the front lines!" As the dropship took off again.

Stepping out into the harsh Mareshon sun, her helmet's smart lenses dimmed the light and she looked around as her radio bleeped again. "You're on your own from here recruit, use your map to find your way to the training facility."

She nodded to herself, and stomped her back right hoof to pull up her helmet's HUD. Her smart lenses went dark as a barely coloured map display covered them. Showing the relevant signal marker, and the nearby terrain.

Wasting no time, Hell turned and began trotting towards her destination. As she passed by the rocks and dead shrubs, a female voice bleeped over her helmet radio, "Ah, welcome to Tartarus Diver training, your instructor is waiting up ahead, please proceed."

Hell giggled in elation as she approached the training base. She stepped off the Mareshon sand and onto the concrete. Ignoring the flags of her home as a recording of her training instructor played for her. Saying all kinds of things.

As the gate opened, Hell recognized the simple training course, smirked to herself, then took off like a bullet.

She broke into a gallop, seeing the wire and mud ahead, she jumped; missing the wire by barely an inch, she hit the ground in a roll while shifting her weight onto her hooves and launching herself under the obstacle with her momentum instead of crawling through. Flaring her wings for the extra boost, she rushed up the steps: flap, front hooves, back hooves, flap. Then it was a galloping turn into a series of chest high vaults. She ran around the first one, stepped up onto the second, and threw herself over the third, her smaller wings flapping to give her the boost she needed.

Barely winded, she waited for the next door to open, smirking to herself at the recording's compliment.

It slid open, and she read the massive warning sign as she approached the overhang in a run. In front of her was a live fire pit with turrets pointed at her. Stepping on the ledge just before the pit, Hell threw herself as far as she could; hitting the deck and to her own pride, not even flinching as the machineguns began firing. She spent a couple of seconds wiggling forwards in the dust. Standing up as the machine guns stopped firing and the next door opened, the instructor began shouting about more details.

Taking a couple of steps up to the 'battlefield injury simulator' she clenched her jaw, knowing what was coming. She pressed her hoof down onto the little button with zero hesitation. Leaning forwards and tightening her form as a pointed stick of metal shoved itself in-between her armor plate and into her chest.

She stumbled away as it retracted, gasping as her lungs tried to adapt to the pressure.

The instructor said something else she wasn't paying attention to, and a drawer slid open under the injury simulator. She pulled one of the stims out and jammed it into her neck. The thing made a little hissing noise as the edges of her vision went white with magic. She'd known from the one time she'd gotten one of her hooves on these stims what they'd do to a pony. Her muscles began to vibrate as she felt her blood washing the chemicals into them. In an instant she was empty, her body felt so light that she felt like she could just step into the sky and float away.

Steeling her mind to stop herself from doing just that, she grit her teeth through the mental effects of the booster and tittered quietly to herself as she felt her skin folding out, the magic fixing the hole in her chest as the bloodied, dead parts fell out and onto the dirt. She took a deep breath, and cantered forwards towards the next section.

As she approached and the drugs began to wear off, her eyes went wide at the weapon on display for her. She'd always dreamed of holding one of these.

"A hoof mounted P-Two Peacemaker" She said quietly to herself

Lifting the gun out from its stand, she snapped her eyes to the giant black monster crawling out of a hole in a military style dirt enclosure surrounded with barbed wire and concrete. A red light began to flash along with a siren as the instructor explained the creature.

The thing was black and green, with jagged pointed features. It stood on four pointed legs operated with hydraulic muscles and had several blue compound eyes around its head.

Hell Diver didn't need an explanation. She lifted her hoof, took aim, and fired four rounds into the creature, the first broke off its front leg, spewing green ichor into the air. The next two went into its head, which disappeared in a shower of gore. Hell fired one more shot just for good measure.

As the instructor kept talking, Hell leaned down to her bandolier and grabbed a grenade in her mouth by the pin. Hefting it up, she grabbed it with her hoof and separated the pin and the grenade. She spat the pin onto the ground with the others, and kicked her front hoof forwards. The grenade bounced once on the rim of the hole, and then exploded three seconds later.

She folded the side arm into its 'mounted' position, and then ran forwards into the next section.

Looking up at the instructors 'instruction' Hell spotted a Super Destroyer and smiled beneath her helmet.

"Just a minute, and I'll be on one of those. Saving the galaxy..." She muttered to herself.

Stomping her back left hoof on the ground, her HUD came up again. She checked the display with the location, and then used the controls in her left front hoof guard to make adjustments to the trajectory, and the timing. Three beeps, and a small sphere rolled down off its attachment point from under her barrel and into her hoof, it enlarged once it was there, and turned red. Smiling, Hell chucked the thing at the mass of bugs, itching to get at her and tear her to shreds.

A sky reaching red beacon lit up the sky, and Hell smugly took a few steps back.

A boom drowned out the sounds of static and wiped her thoughts away. The helmet barely muting the sound just enough for her to not go deaf immediately. Hell sidestepped a chitinous head as it flopped to the ground next to her, its mandibles smoking, and the joint where its head connected to its organs sloping out the back of its neck. She smirked as she crushed the thing on her way out. Her hoof sinking into it, and the green ichor marking her hoof armor with death.

Moving past the just opened door and into a dirt field covered in Tartarus pods and a metal platform, a cardboard cut-out of a pony in the same Tartarus Diver gear as her rose from the ground and then subsequently exploded into pieces as the instructor recording went on.

Following the instructions, Hell stomped her back left hoof again, did the necessary calculations and adjustments on her HUD and called in the reinforcement stratagem, as the instructor had referred to it as.

After it landed, a new cardboard cut out rose with a, "Hello! Fellow Tartarus Diver!"

Hell chuckled and shook her head, already standing by the next door as it opened.

She trotted forward in glee as the three more weapon displays opened up for her

Her smile forced her muzzle against the sides of her helmet fabric as she spoke to herself enthusiastically, "An AR-Twenty Three!" She yelled, dancing in place as she took the thing from its stand.

She looked over to the other stands, grabbed the ammunition and loaded it in. She smiled, having seen the mechanism in manuals hundreds of times, but finally getting to eject and load a magazine herself was practically a dream come true. She stepped over to the other bin and grabbed a fresh grenade for her bandolier, then trotted up to the door.

She lifted the AR-Twenty Three Liberator up to her left shoulder, hitting the back of it on the rail right next to her neck where it locked into place on the ball joint built into the shoulder armor. Once her HUD registered the weapon attachment, she bounced her head to roll her universal trigger into her mouth; then she took the hoof mount in her leg and aimed it forwards, leaning her head through the iron sights with a cocky smile.

No walls this time. Her brain registered a slightly higher danger, but her higher functions reminded her of the hilariously powerful tool currently aimed at the danger, thus leading to zero anxiety.

A black bug crawled up from the hole. Seeing the light of Sol for probably the first time in years.

It fell to the dust in pieces as Hell unleashed the entire magazine into it. Just for fun.

Repeating the action of priming a grenade, she took several extra steps forwards and lobbed it. Another bug came up from the hole, and she quickly flipped her sidearm from her non dominant hoof and fired two rounds into its head, and one into its body as it fell to the ground.

She tried to restrain herself, but she couldn't. Doing a short four hoof dance in place as she yipped in glee.

"Hahah! Take that!" She yelled, shaking her hoof at the offending piles of currently deceased meat.

She thought to herself: I'm finally doing it... It's really happening.

Turning to the side with a smile still plastered on her face underneath her helmet, she approached the next section.

Stomping her back left hoof again, she dialed in the necessary details. Several beeps and boops sounded off as she chucked the two spheres onto the dirt. Two pillars of light stretched into the sky, and moments later two Tartarus pods hit the ground near her. Sending roiling cascades of force up her hooves as they shook the ground. Trotting forwards, she grabbed the front of the long machine gun in her hoof. No longer needing to express her excitement; merely taking the thing with joy.

She levered the front of it so that the length flipped up under her barrel, where it locked itself in place. The front of the gun hanging from just underneath the left side of her chest on the rail built into her armor.

Grabbing the box of ammunition, she slid the machine gun forwards on the rail, and flipped the front of it over her shoulder. Sitting back so she could reach the mechanism, she tossed the empty box, and added the far heftier machine gun ammunition. Sliding the action and discarding the nothing she slotted the box cartridge in place and then stood as she slid the gun back underneath her barrel, and trotted forwards over the dirt into the next section.

Hell put on her serious face at the open terrain and the bug holes off in the distance. Stepping up to the terminal screen as the instructor continued giving her instructions, she pressed the required functions. Clearly meant for showing recruits how the universal terminals functioned, and then hefted the front of the machine gun into her left hoof, rolling her trigger into her mouth.

She stepped around the terminal, flaring her wings out to keep herself stead on three legs as the bars surrounding her home's standard fell into the ground with a 'shhhrvvvvnnn' and a 'kerchunk'

She trotted up to it, scooped it up in her hoof, leaving her gun dangling, and then walked it up to the placement point, the flag pressed into her shoulder where her Liberator was mounted. To make it easier to carry, of course.

She slammed it into the metal, the indented plate parting for the much sturdier titanium pole. As she stepped back, she stomped both her front hooves and tensed her back, pointing her head up to the air as she took her front right hoof and crossed it across her chest.

Then the metal bug holes opened up and immediately, chitinous monsters began crawling out. From the left, came the large ones she'd seen before, to the right, tiny grubs, barely the size of her head chittered out, squealing as soon as they saw the sun. The larger ones hissed and immediately began closing the distance. Hell began backpedaling, with the machine gun in her left hoof, she bit down on the trigger and opened up.

Green ichor and bits of chitin began flying as she cheered while mowing down the bug unfortunate enough to be closest to her.

"Yeh-heah! Get some! You filthy bugs!" She screamed over the roar of the machine gun, slowly panning her arch of fire towards the little ones that had begun racing towards her. They didn't stand a chance. There weren't any parts left over of the tiny grubs, at least not any physical ones. The machine gun stopping power turned most of them into paste or gooey chunks after five or six rounds hit each one individually. Hell ran the machine gun dry, firing into the already mostly dead crowd.

Once it clicked, she took a deep breath of the stale air now filled with the scent of blood, death, and Equestrian Democracy. The instructor continued to congratulate her as she began to step forwards, her confident steps slowing as she approached the hall. On her right and left, statues of Tartarus Divers stood saluting next to banners. In the center of the open air hall was a cape. A Tartarus Diver cape.

"Wow..." She walked up to the stand, her mind far away from the space around her as she approached. "I can't believe..." She lifted a hoof and timidly touched the fabric. "It's... I'm really here."

She clenched her jaw and smiled, blinking away tears unformed as she pulled the cape down from its stand and latched it onto her shoulder as sparklers shot up from the ground around her. Ducking her head to latch it onto the opposite side, she took a deep breath as she stood straight to her slightly shorter than average height.

Unbeknownst to her, outside of a little tickle on her flanks; Hell Diver, at the age of nineteen, had just received her cutie mark.

As the next series of doors opened, Hell began trotting forwards with a bounce in her step, her hooves hitting the metal grate with confidence she felt running through her blood. In front of her was the cryo-rocket. The ship that would take her to her very own Super Destroyer, then to the Galactic War, and beyond.

Trotting up to the walkway, she approached the cryo pod and lifted herself up onto her hind legs. Doing a half pirouette, she slid her back into the pod, then stepped back into it as it closed. She gazed out through the glass onto the training facility as she felt the vents and the magic take hold of her body. Her smile froze onto her face as her mind fell away and her vision went black.

The last thought her theatrical mind came up with was this: Time to finally show them what I'm made of.

Level Up!
Level: One
Title: Cadet

Congratulations on completing your Tartarus Diver's Training! Now get out there and Dive!

Author's Note

Yes, the Thestral MC is named Hell Diver, no I couldn't resist. Yes I plan on packing this chock full of memes and 'lols' as I try to learn how to write combat scenes.

Please keep all hands and hooves inside at all times, enjoy the ride.