The Life and Times of a West Hoof Cadet

I had never fought so hard in my life. Kicker training, at its toughest, didn't compare to this. However, once the students rallied under the bellowed commands of the Instructors, the tide of the battle had begun to turn. Combine that with reinforcements from the palace and things were getting back into hoof.

Over the school, a flight of pegasi had arrived and begun to descend. For a moment, I thought they were a second wave of Lunars, but, as they drew closer, I recognized the red armor and the pair of identical mares that led the flight.

The Kickers had arrived.

I was torn between running to meet Mom and staying with Nimbus. It was all Tornado, Typhoon and I could do to keep the mare from running into the flames. Not that we were all fighting the same urge ourselves, even as the screams of those trapped within began to die away. To go anywhere near the infirmary before the fire crews had a chance to bring the blaze under control was suicide.

Nimbus wasn't concerned with that, however. She just kept trying to push through us, nearly coming to blows with Typhoon and biting me once or twice. At one point, she actually did manage to make it through, but the heat pushed her back before she could get too close.

I heard the sound of galloping and turned in time to see my mother catch me in a tackle-hug and nearly crush me. I swear, I heard the old armor groaning with strain. More likely, I was the one who groaned. She shifted me somewhat and snagged Tor, who let out a wheeze of his own.

Then, something really strange began to happen.

Mom started to cry.

I suppose nearly losing your children after losing your husband can have that effect. Even though she was mute, she produced sounds that meandered somewhere between wheezing and gasping as she crushed us to her barrel. Soon, she was nuzzling us hard enough to rub the fur from our muzzles.

This display was incredibly unusual for her. Usually, the only affection Mom displayed was a small smile if we did really well. She was a stoic pony, part of growing up Kicker, I suppose.

Despite how much I wanted, needed, to remain in my mother's embrace, there was work to be done. Though the tide had turned, reinforcements had arrived, and though they were outnumbered nearly five-to-one, the Lunars refused to back off.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Aunt Draft being briefed by Instructor Striker. Most of the flight they had brought had broken up into squads of five or six and had begun assisting the Guard and surviving Patrol ponies in rounding up the few remaining Lunars.

A massive commotion arose as the fire crews made the scene, making a bee-line for the inferno. The massive earth ponies hauled an equally-massive wagon loaded down with equipment with three more overladen wagons in their wake. These wagons were formed into a perimeter around the fire and the crews worked quickly, hauling out hoses and charging pumps.

Within a few minutes of their arrival, the first streams of water began to douse the flames. Cadets took up a defensive line around the crews, allowing them to work without having to worry about Lunars while others escorted arriving crews to the sites of fires.

Eventually, Mom released us. I made my way back over to the blazing infirmary, knowing Nimbus would still be there. She was arguing with multiple fire ponies about how to attack the blaze.

I came up and wrapped a wing around her, tossing my best apologetic smile at the busy ponies. “Sorry about this, guys. Let me get her out of your way.” I practically had to haul the irate Nimbus back across the perimeter.

“You need to leave them alone.” I told her.

“They're doing it wrong. They need to go in from the door and attack the flames from the inside.”

“They're trained on how to do this.”

“They won't be able to get at any of the ponies still trapped inside.”

“That doesn't matter, Nimbus. I'm sorry, but they're all dead.”

She stopped, her pupils tiny. The realization of the night's events caused her to tremble uncontrollably. I stared at her as her mouth move, forming words I could not hear.

“Nim, are you okay?”

She let out something of a growl. I followed the direction of her stare and saw two Guard ponies half-escorting, half-dragging Skyy Gust, who had managed to return to consciousness.

An unequine noise echoed off the buildings, catching the attention of every pony in earshot, and it took me a moment to realize that Nimbus had made that noise. By the time that had happened, she had halved the distance between us and her sister.

“Nimbus, no!” I cried as I charged after her.

Skyy screamed as Nimbus slammed into her and ripped her from her escort. Before they hit the ground, the hooves and obscenities were flying. I caught Nimbus and pulled her from Skyy, embracing her tightly. I wrapped her in both wings and all four of my legs, rolling onto my back. The embrace was less for comfort and more for restraint.

“Get that nag out of here!” I bellowed at the guards while wrestling with Nimbus. They hurried to grab Skyy and haul her away.

I returned my attention to the struggling mare in my grasp. Now that Skyy was gone, Nim began to calm down. She rolled and threw me off of her, limping a short distance away before sitting. I was about to go to her when Tornado appeared from the lingering smoke and sat down next to her. Wrapping a wing across her back, he pulled her close and held her as she finally broke down.

“You okay?”

I turned to find Typhoon standing nearby, watching me carefully.

“I'm not hurt.” I assured him.

He shook his head. “That's not what I asked and you know it. Tonight was hard on everypony.”

“Some more than others.” I turned my attention back to Nimbus and Tornado.

“I'll bet.” He said, sitting down next to me. “But you are as deep in this as she is. You know her better than anypony here.”

“I can't imagine what she's going through. I mean, sororicide? Whether or not she hated her sister, she still must be devastated. Pile on top of that all of these lives that she feels responsible for...”

“She's going to need help.” Typhoon finished.

“She needs a family that actually cares about her. She needs someplace safe to go with ponies who, she knows, genuinely have her back.”

Ty sighed. “I wonder how long it's going to take for her to recover from this.”

I shook my head. “There is no recovery. Maybe we can help her return to life, but she'll never forget this. It will forever be at the back of her mind, haunting her for the rest of her days. She'll put a wall between herself and everypony else and justify it as protecting them from her.”

“Don't give up on her so soon, Wind. There's always hope that she'll return to normal.”

“Oh, yeah. There's always hope, but I'll believe it when I see it.”

“Do you have to be so cynical?”

“I prefer to think of myself as 'realistic'. It's very difficult to bounce back from something like this. Just think about it. She's a mare who has lived by her own rules and was content to suffer the consequences of her decisions. Now, because of one of her decisions, countless others will suffer the consequences, instead of just her.”

“Talk about a feathering wake-up call.”

I nudged him. “C'mon, they need a minute alone. Let's go see what we can do to help out.”

x----x

One hundred and thirty.

Twenty-five cadets.

Seventy-two patrol ponies.

Thirty-two Lunars.

And one Kicker.

That was the final body count. One hundred and thirty ponies were dead because of one greedy mare. Countless families would suffer terribly because of one dysfunctional clan. A proud and respected institution's future was in peril because of madness from a millennium ago.

Near the gate, a makeshift triage area had been set up where the wounded were treated while they waited to be taken to nearby hospitals.

Even though I didn't want to, I couldn't help but watch as bodies were being collected from the charred ruins of the infirmary, some burned well beyond recognition. I fought back bile as the number of body bags continued to grow.

Tornado had taken Nimbus and returned to the Compound. With the rising of the sun, we all got a full view of the devastation wrought during the night and that set her off again. I had a feeling she would need some time before she was anything even vaguely emotionally stable. I would have to speak to Mom about seeing if she could spend that time on the Compound. There would be plenty to do, plenty to take her aggression out on, and peaceful enough that she wouldn't be disturbed.

I watched as four Kickers, with Aunt Draft in the lead, went over to the line of bodies that were waiting to be transported to funeral homes. After a quick inspection, she indicated one body. The four with her came forward to collect it, but I didn't need to see who it was. I already knew. I had been the one to find him.

Blizzard was dead.

I was well past grieving for him, or perhaps I was still in shock, or maybe the night's events had left me more than a little numb. Whichever way, I felt nothing, but watched as the four ponies left with the stretcher that bore my dead cousin. Aunt Draft remained where she was and seemed to fight for composure.

I approached her. “Are you okay?” The moment the words left my mouth, I winced. Of course she wasn't okay. She had just lost her son on a domestic mission that should have been safe. Rayne would know her brother only through photos and stories.

She took a deep breath. “Yeah. About as okay as I'll ever be, I guess. Your friend-”

“Nimbus had nothing to do with this. She's as much of a victim as anypony here.” I assured her.

“I don't blame her. Nopony does. You're right, she is a victim. She's the victim.” She looked away for a moment. “I have the feeling she won't want to go home after all of this. If she needs a place to stay, I have a bed open.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I'll let her know.”

Aunt Draft gave me a single nod and left.

I sat down, too exhausted to do anything more. I convulsively swallowed against the urge to vomit as I looked over the destruction that surrounded me. All of this, all of these lives lost, all of those families destroyed, because of bits. Feathering bits. Feathering useless pieces of metal.

I felt a wing drape over me and looked up to find Mom smiling down at me. I leaned against her and tucked my head against her chest.

“I'm so tired, Mommy. I wanna go home.”

She nudged me back to my hooves and kept me beneath her wing as we slowly made our way back to the Compound.