The Assistant

RainbowDash woke up in the middle of the night. She looked at the clock on the end table. It said it was 5:00 in the morning. She needed to get back to sleep. In four hours she would start training under Albert. She knew she needed to get back to sleep. This was to important to go in with only two hours of sleep. She had to sleep. She closed her eyes and pulled Thunderlane's arm around her tighter. She laid there for a whole ten minutes before she got up and went downstairs.

She made a cup of coffee, realizing that she wasn't even tired now. She got mad at herself. She needed to sleep. She had to sleep. She knew this. "So why can't I go to sleep?"She thought aloud.

"Because your afraid."Thunderlane scared her as he came down the stairs."I went through this to, and your probably worse than me, considering you know what you have to deal with. Can I have a cup?"

"Sure,"She said, poring both of them a cup of coffee. They sat there for a minute in silence."Why am I scared?"She eventually blurted out,"I mean, I already know whats coming up. I had no clue what was going to happen when I fought NightmareMoon, or Discord, or when I went to save the crystal empire, and I wasn't scarred any of those times! And now that I know exactly whats coming up, I'm terrified. I'm a wimp."

"No your not,"Thunderlane said reassuringly,"This is normal. You don't know exactly whats coming up, you just know what we told you. Your anxious to see if we were lying or not, plus you know if we weren't lying then you've got the three worst months of your life coming up. That's enough to make anypony uneasy."

RainbowDash thought about it for a few moments. He was exactly right. She was anxious. She couldn't believe it. How come she hadn't seen this earlier? "What ever it is,"She began,"It sucks. Now I'm going to be tired all throughout training, and Albert's going to beat me, and..."

"No he's not,"Thunderlane said sternly,"Because Red figured this was going to happen. He gave me this to give to you."

He pulled a small glass bottle out from a drawer. Inside was some sort of glowing orange liquid."What is that?"She asked.

"It's an energy elixir."He explained,"It'll give you the energy to blow through Albert's training, but be careful. Don't go over what you think you normally would when it comes to the tests. This is a one time thing. Also It will only last twelve and a half hours, so when your done come right back here. This thing has a crash so bad you'll get knocked out when it stops working."

"Ok,"She said, setting it aside. She didn't like the look or smell of it."Is there any last minute suggestions you have?"

"No,"He replied,"I've told you everything I know. But there is one more thing."

"What?"She asked anxiously.

"Good luck."Thunderlane said with every ounce of kindness that existed in all of Equestria.

She jumped over and hugged him. She didn't want to let go of him. "Don't let me go." She whispered into his ear. She realized she was crying.

"I don't want to,"He said, pushing her away slightly so there eyes met,"But I have to. A bird doesn't learn to fly if you hold onto it it's entire life."

"I know how to fly,"She responded.

"You know what I mean,"He said, chuckling slightly. The room got very quite after that. They stood there hugging for a long time. Eventually Thunderlane disembraced. "C'mon, it's six, you've got three hours till training. In the meantime, how about we watch some TV?"

"Sure,"She said, wiping her face off. They walked to the living room and sat on the couch. As they watched she looked up at all of her ribbons and trophies.Alright Dash, She thought,You can do this. Your the best flyer in all of Equestria. Albert's got nothin' on you. This thought gave her some comfort, and as she laid down on Thunderlane she was finally able to get back to sleep at 7:30.

"Dash!"Thunderlane shook his girlfriend,"Dash! Wake up!"

"Huh?"Dash said groggily.

"You have to go!"He screamed as he shook her some more.

She looked at the clock."Oh fuck,"She screamed as she saw it was 8:50. She pounced up and drank the elixir in one gulp. She was worried when she didn't feel any less tired. Nevertheless, she galloped to the door. Thunderlane shouted good lick as she took off.

Dammit you stupid elixir, She thought as her eyes began to droop,Why won't you wor-

All of a sudden she doubled in speed. Confused, she realized that she wasn't the least bit tired anymore. She almost made a sonic rainboom accidently but she was able to slow herself down enough to prevent that. As she walked into Red's house she saw that his clocks still said 8:50. Damn, She thought, This shit really does work! I need to keep calm though, if I come in tommorow and there's a huge difference, I could get beat, along with Thunder and Red. She realized this was much easier said than done, as her wings didn't want to stay down and it was all she could do to keep them from flapping.

"Miss Dash," a voice said from behind. It was Chief.

"Oh,"She said cheerily,"It's you. How ya been charmer?"

"I can understand why you wouldn't like me,"He said,"But I want you to understand the only piece of intel I had that was attached to the NLR was your friendship with Twilight. So, I assumed you would have gone to her first and been told the lies of Celestia."

"Whatever,"She replied, not caring,"Where's the training area?"

"Follow me please."He led her across the room and up the stairs. Once they were in the middle of the balcony he pulled back on one of the spokes on the guard rail. The picture behind them moved back and slid to the side, revealing an elevator."Good luck," He told her as she stepped in.

As the elevator reached it's destination she stepped out and saw something incredible. She had been taken some circular room with a ceiling so high she figured it had to be the hill that was directly behind Red's house. In the center of the room there was a huge pillar that appeared to be some sort of building; she guessed this from the windows. She didn't see Albert anywhere, but the ponies she did see surprised her greatly.

She saw Colgate talking to Cloudchaser, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were chatting a little ways away from them. Closest to the ramp that led down to the floor were Lyra and Bon Bon. Farthest away from her was the pair that surprised her the most; Doctor Whooves and Derpy Hooves. As she walked down the steps Vinyl saw her.

"Ha ha, Bitches!"She shouted,"I told you! Now pay up!" The ponies started to walk towards her, many of them rolling there eyes.

"Wait, what?"Dash asked.

"We had a bet,"Octavia explained as she gave vinyl scratch a hoofful of bits,"That there would be another pegasus coming. Then Vinyl decided to 'make it more interesting' by guessing who it would be, and she guessed you."

"Oh,"She said,"Ok. Hey, anypony want to race?"

"Sure,"Cloudchaser said, jumping into the air.

"Ah ah ah,"Vinyl said,"First, pay up."

"Ok,"Cloudchaser replied. She grabbed a hoofful of bits and before throwing them down to the unicorn pretended to masturbate with them as if she had a dick. On the third stroke she shot the bits out at Vinyl. Vinyl, going along with the joke, opened her mouth and attempted to catch them. When she failed and got a faceful of bits she licked her face. Everypony except Octavia was laughing, even Vinyl. As they calmed down Albert walked out of the central pillar.

"What the fuck is wrong with all of you?"He screamed, shutting them up instantly,"Get the fuck in line!"

They all lined up. He patrolled in front of them, starring each of them down. None of them flinched, though almost everypony gulped.

"This is what they let into the NLR these days?"He said after a few minutes,"We must be getting desperate. But it's my job to turn you maggots into grade a soldiers. So you should all know that that's what's going to happen. Weather you like it or not. Let's get going, everypony to the escape tunnel, NOW!"

They all ran in different directions, Albert correcting there courses with a slap to the forehead. Luckily she was able to find the tunnel before he could find her. The rest followed her and they lined up in the large tunnel.

"Alright maggots."Albert yelled at them,"First step to joining the NLR is pure physical strength. I don't care what or who you are, you'll need it at some point in your worthless lives. Now, I've set up this tunnel as a track. The finish line is a mile down, and that's where you've got to make get to in no less than thirty seconds."

"Thirty seconds?"Bon Bon asked,"Is that even possible?"

"The only limitations you have are the ones you put on yourself."He screamed at her,"Now, get your sorry asses down there now!"

He blew a whistle and they all started running, or in the pegasi's case flying, down the tunnel. It was a cinch for Dash, who got to the end in ten seconds before she could slow herself down. She looked toward the start line. She couldn't see the others, but she could hear what was going on. Albert was cursing out Derpy as well as every pony who couldn't fly. She heard a buzz and looked at the wall beside her. A giant digital timer showed that it had already been thirty seconds. She felt bad for the others. It didn't sound like any of them had gotten past half way yet. At one minute Cloudchaser reached the finish line.

"How,"She began, breathing heavily,"Did you, get here, so fast?"

"I am the fastest flyer in Equestria,"She said, trying to hied the fact that she was cheating.

"But,"Cloudchaser wasn't satisfied,"Your, not even tired. How..."

Just then the other ponies came into view, along with Albert. They were all gasping for breath and Derpy Hooves had a large bump on her forehead. Dash almost lost her cool right then and there. How could anypony be so evil? Derpy Hooves was the nicest pony in all of ponyville, neigh, Equestria. How could anypony hurt her, especially so badly? She wanted to kill Albert, but remembered that he was a three star general and even though she was on this super elixir thing she was on he could probably still kill her in an instant. She gritted her teeth, barely holding herself together.

The rest of the practice was spent attempting to beat Albert's impossible test. Dash kept rising to the next level, until she finally reached the "ultimate test" as Albert called it. She was supposed to fly 10 miles in 1 second. Even when she let herself go and let the elixir go full strength she couldn't make it. Luckily she didn't make it this far until the end of day, so she didn't get beat. The others weren't so lucky. Cloudchaser left with a small cut on her lip. Octavia and Vinyl both left with black eyes. Lyra and Bon Bon got both black eyes and bloodied noses. Bon Bon also left with a large lump on the back of her head. Doctor Whooves, who had tried to defend Derpy, had left with two black eyes, a bloody nose, and what appeared to be a fractured leg. Derpy Hooves had gotten the worst. To add to her bump she had two black eyes, two bloody noses, and a broken wing. She didn't know how they could keep going like this; she figured the others probably hated her and even if they didn't they'd probably die if they came back.

Just as she was wondering how this was going to work, a group of three ponies got in front of them directly outside of Red's house. It was Thunderlane, Chief, and, she couldn't believe it, Big Macintosh.

"What do you want?"Doctor Whooves asked hatefully.

"We wanted to apologize on behalf of General Jordenson."Big Mac said.

"Well you can keep it."Octavia screamed,"We had the wrong idea about the NLR. You guy's are monsters!"

"No where not."Chief said."General Jordenson is just an asshole."

"Does it look like we give a fuck?"Vinyl screamed,"We almost died today! Were not coming back!"

"Please, listen,"Thunderlane said stepping forward,"I trained under him. He's the biggest asshole on the planet. But the rest of the NLR is good. We protect Equestria and fight for the rights of everypony. You can't leave on account of him. Please, just push through, and then we'll take over and you won't have to worry about him ever again."

"If we go back tommorow then we will die."Lyra stated.

"No you won't"Big Mac said,"Nurse Redheart is gonna fix all y'all up real good. Just don't tell Jordenson or else he might lose control of himself."

"Damn you guys,"Cloudchaser began,"If I die on account of you I'll kill you my self."

"Thank you for staying."Thunderlane said,"We really are a good group, it's just him. He's a little, um, well, crazy."

"You don't say,"Bon Bon added sarcastically as she and Lyra left.

Dash took off to her house. Her elixir would wear off any second now, and she didn't want pass out in the middle of town. She pounded through her door and up to her room, knocking down a few pictures in her rush. She passed out as she entered her room, her inertia carrying her into her bed.