The Life and Times of a West Hoof Cadet

Thankfully, after three weeks, Instructor Line decided that we had paid for our transgressions and released us from Latrine duty. Thank my honored ancestors and Celestia and whoever else I needed to thank for this because that most dreaded of weeks had arrived.

Finals were upon us.

Exercises and most lectures were canceled for all but the First-years as everypony scrambled for as much study time as they could. The library was forever packed, often with a large crowd of cadets waiting to enter at opening and being chased out at closing.

Our saddlebags were heavy with books. Nimbus and I had come up with a plan. Rather than work around our peers, some of which were not as keen as us on their future, we would make a list of whatever books we might need that were not a part of the regular cirriculum, take them from the library, and study them in our dorm. The bunks looked like small fortresses of books and paper and, more than once, I had considered instigating a paper-ball battle with Nimbus to burn off some of the stress.

The three texts I had spread before me were my own Studies in Equine Psychology text, the New Equestria Journal of Psychiatrics, and a dictionary. To my left was a large scroll that I jotted notes upon. While the notes would be forbidden during the exams, I was always more of a visual learner and writing everything out helped me to think.

I was exhausted and desperately wished for some coffee to keep me going. I couldn't afford to slack off now.

Like a prairie dog, I poked my head out of my bookfort and glanced at the clock. It was still early. Perhaps a quick power-nap wasn't out of the question. I lowered my head, pillowing it on my textbook, and closed my eyes.

x----x

I don't know what woke me. I hadn't set an alarm, which, in retrospect, was a bad idea. I raised my head and looked around, my ears swiveling in search of any stray sound. Beside me, Nimbus groaned as she came awake.

“Whuwuzat?” She mumbled, smacking her lips and looking around blearily.

As I came awake, certain noises began to reach my ears. Shouts, commands and a high-pitched whistling echoed from outside.

I got up and opened the window, sticking my head outside to look about. I almost wished I hadn't. The window had muffled the sounds of combat, the clang of steel on steel and the cries of wounded and dying ponies.

I craned my head upward to see pegasi in combat high above me. Two locked together and tumbled towards the ground. As they flashed passed the window, I noticed one was a Patrol pony, the other, I could only assume, was a Lunar.

The two ponies remained locked together as they smashed to the ground. Neither moved.

The smell of smoke reached my nostrils and I noticed an odd glow coming from the lower windows of a nearby building.

Fire.

“What's going on out there?”

I turned to see Nimbus climbing out of bed. I had forgotten she was even there. “You need to see this.”

She joined me at the window and took in the sights. Chaos reigned. We couldn't see much of the campus from our vantage point, but what we did see caused our hearts to stop. In a corner of one of the buildings, half a dozen Lunars had a pair of cadets cornered.

“Get away from them!” Nimbus bellowed before I could stop her.

One of the Lunars, a pegasus, took to the air, pulling something from beneath his cloak. The remaining Lunars set upon the two cadets, both ponies screaming as they disappeared beneath a mass of bodies.

It was all I could do to keep Nimbus from flinging herself from the window and going after them. As I hauled her back in, she spun on me.

“What do you think you're doing? They need help! They'll be killed!”

“You'll be killed!” I screamed back. “Even if they aren't trained, they still outnumber you five-to-one.”

“We can't just stand here!”

I put my hooves on her shoulders. “Listen, the Long Patrol is here and Tartarus is being raised outside. There are hundreds of ponies within earshot. Help is coming and all we have to do is lock the door, hunker down, and sit tight until the calvary comes.”

I reached over and shut the window. As I turned away, motion caught my eye. The Lunar pegasus had returned and he had something with him. A jug dangled from the rope he was carrying. He stopped short and the rope swung. At the apex of the swing, he released the rope. The momentum carried it away from him and directly towards our window.

Time seemed to slow as I grabbed Nimbus.

“Get down!” I cried as I threw her to the floor and dropped on top of her. The window shattered as the jug struck it, showering us in broken glass. The jug smashed against the floor and exploded. The flames erupted around the room, turning it into an inferno.

I pulled Nimbus to her hooves. “Let's get out of here!”

The flames scorched my belly as I followed her through the flames. At the door, she fought with the knob, desperately trying to open it. I shoved her aside, turned, and kicked. The door shuddered.

I tried again as the flames began to chew at the walls, the smoke becoming thick. My panic must have lent strength to my legs as I heard the satisfying splintering of wood.

With a final buck, the door smashed open, collapsing into the hall. We followed it. I spotted cadets poking their heads out of their rooms, awoken by the commotion. I paused long enough to throw the fire alarm before charging after Nimbus.

Before we reached the ground floor, a panic had begun. While we had all had our fire drills, the administration held them about once a month, in the heat of the moment, training had been forgotten. Cries of “Fire” and “The building's burning” went up as terrified ponies fled the building.

As we passed her office, Instructor Line burst out. “What in the name of Celestia is going on out here?!”

I stopped. “Ma'am, the school is under attack, the building is on fire, and we need to get the hay out of here!”

I left her staring with a slack jaw and burst through the door, into the night.

What greeted me was total, feathering, chaos.

Ponies were running in all directions. While I couldn't get an accurate count, there were no more than fifty Lunars against 200 or more Long Patrol ponies. Normally, it would be no problem for the Patrol. However, these were hardly normal circumstances.

The Patrol ponies had grown complacent over weeks of quiet on familiar ground. The Lunars had struck with little warning. The attack was a surgical strike, one that was completely unexpected, and the Patrol was getting slammed.

“We need to help them.” Nimbus said.

“Agreed. Let's get to the armory. We're going to need armor and weapons.”

“You know I'm good with wingblades.”

“We're going to need a lot more than that. You any good with a lance?” I shot to the left as another incendiary bomb fell from the sky.

“Decent.”

The door to the armory was unlocked and ajar. Apparently it had already been raided by Instructors and cadets, who had taken the best of what was there. We managed to find a couple of decent sets of plate armor and some worn, but effective wingblades. The lances, unfortunately, had already been taken.

“Listen,” I said. “We need to come up with some kind of plan. We can't just go running around willy-nilly.

She nodded. “Yeah. Not all of the cadets have training for this kind of situation, at least, nothing beyond theory. We need to get them out of the way.”

“What do you recommend?”

She thought for a moment. “There will be wounded. The infirmary is probably the best place. We need to get able-bodied cadets to help move the casualties.”

“You should go with them.” I said.

She looked up from fitting her wingblades. “What? No way!”

“Think, featherplot, we're going to need somepony who can take charge and set up a defense. Besides, if Skyy is around, I want you as safe as possible.”

Nimbus set her hooves. “Absolutely not. Skyy is my problem and I will handle her myself.”

“You don't have to. I need you to go with them. You're popular and you have a commanding presence. They will follow you and they'll...”

“Stuff it,” she snapped. “I'm going out there, I'm going to get those ponies to safety, then, I'm going after my sister. You're more than welcome to come along, but you will stay out of my way.”

“Nimbus, stop being such an asinine whorse.” I grabbed her shoulder.

She shoved me back. “You don't get it, do you? This is exactly what I was afraid of. Ponies are dying out there. The Lunars may not have come specifically for me, but Skyy convinced them to come here. I'm sure of it. They probably never would have come had it not been for her. She's out there and I want her blood.”

“So this is what it's all about?” I snapped. “Some petty need for revenge?”

She fixed me with a baleful look. “No, Wind. This is about protecting the ponies I care about.”

And, with those words, she was gone.

I tore out the door after her, but, in the chaos of the battle, she had already disappeared. I scanned the area, but the intermittant light in the darkness, combined with the constant movement made it impossible to tell one pony from the next.

“Wind!”

I turned to see two very familiar faces. I ran over and embraced both of them. “Tornado! Typhoon! Thank Celestia, you're alive.” I got a closer look at Typhoon, noticing that he looked a little beat-up and was favoring his left foreleg. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head. “I fell down some stairs.”

I pulled them both in so I could be heard. “Go into the armory and get armor and weapons. There's not much left, but every little bit helps. When you're ready, help round up cadets and get them to the infirmary. We're setting up defenses there until help arrives.”

“What will you be doing?” Tornado asked.

“Nimbus is convinced Skyy is here and has gone after her. I need to go make sure she stays alive.”

He pulled me into an embrace. “Be careful. Don't die out there. I mean it.”

“You, too, little brother. If anything happens to you, Mom will skin me alive. I like my skin where it is so stay safe. When you get all of the cadets to the infirmary, barricade the door so nopony can follow you in and stay there.”

“What about you?”

“I'll be fine.” I released him. “I need to go and make sure that you're fillyfriend doesn't get herself killed.”

I turned and took off, trying to get as high as I could. Just beneath the cloud ceiling, where I could duck up into the cover if I was spotted, I got a look at West Hoof as a whole. While I couldn't hear any of the sounds, I could still see the fires, and they were spreading. Already, one of the dormitories was completely engulfed while smaller fires raged in all of the others. I could see what looked like one flame with a mind of its own, running about like a madpony.

It took a second for me to realize that the living flame was actually a pony unlucky enough to be directly struck by one of the bombs. It ran wild, spreading flames more effectively than the Lunars' bombs ever could. Eventually, either from exhaustion or pain, it collapsed and, mercifully, did not get back up.

I continued scanning for Nimbus, but, at this altitude, I still had the issue of distinguishing between combatants. If my search was to be effective, I would need to leave the safety of the clouds. I dove down, trying to keep my time at such a low altitude to a minimum.

I continued my bobbing, riding thermals from the fires up to cloud level before gliding back down to resume my search, for a short time before I spotted Nimbus. She was on the ground, in the middle of a heated debate with another mare who looked like a lighter version of her.

I landed in the shadows behind them, unknown to the two mares.

“I don't care anymore! I am happy! Finally, I am happy!” She screamed at the other mare. “I don't want Mom's money anymore. You want it, Skyy? You can take it. You can take the money and the titles and the house and the property and you can have every single bit!”

Skyy chuckled and shook her head. “Sorry, little sister, but it's not that easy. I mean, there's more to giving up an inheritance than just saying 'you have it'. There's paperwork and lawyers and more headache than it's worth. It's really just more simple to just kill you.”

“And how would you get away with it? It's no secret that you're running with the Lunars.”

“And who would identify me? If the Guard comes...well...” She began to sob, “...'Oh, my poor Nimby. She was such a sweet filly. Oh, those horrible Lunars. They killed my little sister!'”

“Oh horseapples. You were always a terrible liar.” Nimbus sneered.

“You could stand to be a little more considerate. I mean, had you just died when I tried to kill you years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess, would we? All of your little friends would still be able to read their books and go about their lives. Now, they have to suffer and die because you had to be a selfish little brat.”

Nimbus scoffed, “I'm a selfish little brat? Who's been killing off her siblings for a pittance? Even if you did get both Soar's share and mine, that's not even enough to live off of.”

Skyy gave a thoughtful frown, “You're right, but this isn't about the money, not anymore. This is about you constantly dodging me, always slithering away when I have you in my grasp. That ends now.”

Nimbus laughed. “I have military training. My talent is wingblade combat. I'm smaller, faster, more agile. What chance do you have against me?”

Skyy charged at Nimbus. Both mares reared up and began to beat each other with their forehooves. I made to charge in when a building fell on me, forcing me to the ground.

I was rolled over to stare into the leering eyes of a Lunar.

“Hiya, sweetness. War is war, eh?”

I squirmed. “You have to the count of three to get off of me.”

“Aww, isn't that cute. I love it when they squirm.”

“One...”

He began to tug at my armor. “How do ya get this off?”

“Two...”

“Ah, here we go.” He managed to undo one strap.

“Three!”

I don't think he expected what happened next. The sudden flurry of flailing from me startled him and forced him to back up a bit.

“Where do you think you're going, 'Sweetness'?” I grabbed his head in both of my hooves and slammed it against my chest plate. “I. Want. It!” I punctuated each word with an impact.

He sat up and fell back, his eyes spinning in his head. I gave him a few solid kicks to make sure he was out for good before turning to the warring siblings. Much to my horror, Skyy had overpowered Nimbus and had a blade to her throat.

“Finally, I'll be rid of this thorn in my flank!” Skyy declared.

The thundering of my hooves was the only warning she received before I slammed, head-first, into her ribs, feeling a few of the bones break at the impact.

Skyy gasped as she rolled off of her sister and into the dirt.

I pulled Nimbus to her hooves. “You okay?”

“I've been better.”

Carefully, I checked her neck, but found no blood. “This is the second time I've saved your plot.”

She nodded. “I owe you one.”

I turned to Skyy, who was struggling to stand. “What do you want to do with her?”

“So many choices, so little time.”

I pressed a hoof to her head, restraining her. This mare was indirectly responsible for the deaths of my classmates and had threatened my best friend's life. I don't know what part she played in all of this, but I was sure it was a significant one.

“Please. Please, Nim. I-I-I didn't mean to hurt you. You were always the favorite and...and...Mom and Dad never paid any attention to me.”

I nodded. “Sibling rivalry. It's pretty common. Still, I think you took it a little too far.”

“That's an understatement.” Nimbus snarked. “Move your hoof.”

I pulled my hoof back as her's came in for a powerful blow to Skyy's jaw, striking it hard enough to bounce her head and send her out.

“Let the Guard deal with her.” Nimbus said, turning away. “We need to get to the infirmary.”

As we galloped across the campus, it looked like the tide of the battle was turning. The Guard had finally made the scene and I knew the Kickers wouldn't be far behind. We didn't run around wearing armor so it takes us a little longer to get organized.

The smoke was thick, making it difficult to see and even harder to breathe. Despite our training, we had to stop ever so often to recover.

After what seemed like an eternity, we came within sight of the building, which had a sizable crowd of ponies around it. As we got closer, we saw why.

Fire roared from every window.

I panicked. My brother and Typhoon were in there. Inside, I could hear ponies screaming as they burned. I could see a few flailing at the windows, which were far too small for even a foal to climb through. The door wouldn't budge, despite the banging from the other side.

“Tornado!” I shrieked. “Typhoon!”

“Wind!”

I turned to find both of my stallions coming up behind me, leading a small party of cadets, and breathed a sigh of relief. I rushed to them, wrapping them in encompassing embraces.

“We told them to lock the door. We figured it would be safer there. We didn't think to block the windows. We thought they were too small to get one of those bombs through.” Tornado confessed breathlessly.

“Shh! It's okay. You're okay. Thank Celestia, you're okay.”

“I told them to go there.”

A soft voice, somehow, cut through the screams to reach my ears. Nimbus was staring at the inferno, looking dumbstruck.

“Nimbus?”

“I told them to go in there. I thought they would be safe.”

“Nimbus, this isn't your fault. You couldn't have foreseen this.” I tried to sooth her, but she shook me off.

“They're all dead now. Because of me.”