The Life and Times of a West Hoof Cadet

by Novus Draconis

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance, Comedy
Length: 37544

Cloud Kicker leads a crazy life but where did it all come from

Nimbus Gust is one of the wildest cadets at West Hoof and Wind Kicker is one of the tamest but what happens when the two of them begin spending more time together than anypony, including them, anticipated.

Side story to the Winningverse

Published 2013-08-01 23:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-10 18:01:06 UTC

Chapter 2

When I came to, somepony had moved me from the floor to a booth. I felt the urge to vomit as I was lifted to an upright sitting position. Nimbus grinned at me as she sat down across the table and pushed a glass of water towards me.

“I told you Revenge wasn't for first-timers,” she said in a condescending tone.

“What the hay happened?”

“You inhaled your drink, which I recommend you never do again, and dropped like a stone.”

“You told me to drink it quickly.”

“I did. I did not say that you should dump the entire drink down your throat. Either you have jumbo coconut balls or you're really very stupid.”

“Buck you,” I responded, taking a sip from my water.

Nimbus laughed. “The good thing about this is that my respect for you has just, like, exploded.”

“Nice to know,” I moaned, pressing a hoof to my head. “I can NOT believe I was that stupid. How long was I out?”

“Meh, couple of hours.”

“Welcome back to the land of the livin'.” Tipsy leaned against the table. “How're they hangin'”

I moaned in response.

“I hear ya, filly. Nim leaves me feelin' that same way whenever she takes a seat at my bar.”

“And yet, you keep letting me walk through your door.”

“Well, I didn't say I didn't like your money or...” she glanced at Nimbus from the corner of her eye, “...your body.”

“'M gonna hurl,” I mumbled.

“Rainbow getting its revenge, Windy?”

There was a metallic clank as Tipsy dropped a bucket at my hooves. “Let's hope your aim is better than your ability to hold your drink. Keep the mess to a minimum, please and thank you.”

I doubled over and noisily emptied my stomach into the bucket. Nimbus worked her way over to my side of the booth and was gently massaging a pressure point between my wing joints. Immediately, my nausea was relieved and I felt significantly better.

I sat up and looked over at her. “Thanks. I didn't know you knew how to do that.”

Nimbus cocked her head and tapped her head with a hoof. “What? Did you think there was only air in here?”

“No, not really. It's just...I thought your expertise would fall more along the lines of pretending to be sober and know the best sexual positions for increasing stamina.”

Luna damn my smart mouth. I fully expected Nimbus to shove her hoof down my throat, but, much to my surprise, she started laughing. Hard.

“Oh, wow,” she sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes. “That was a good one, Windy.” She turned to look as the front door opened. “Stallions?”

I sat up and leaned over the table. “In a fillyfooler bar?”

“Must be lost.”

My jaw hit the table when I recognized one of the stallions, “Tor?”

Nimbus pushed herself up on the table. “Who's Tor?”

“Tornado Kicker, he's my brother.”

“Oh, he's cute. What about the other one?”

Tor had introduced me to his companion, a massive pegasus with a charcoal-colored coat, before and I fought to dredge his name up from my memory. “Uh...Typhoon...er...Season! Typhoon Season, that's it!” I watched as the two wandered up to the bar, pausing occasionally to admire the passing mares.

I nudged Nimbus. “Let's go mess with them.”

She chuckled and followed me as I slid out of the booth and trotted up to the bar. We took stools on both sides of the stallions. I sat next to my brother with Nimbus next to Typhoon.

“What are you doing here?”

Tor glanced at me. “Hey, Wind.” He turned away for the briefest moment before snapping back around to me, his eyes as wide as saucers. “WIND!”

I grinned, “You know you're not old enough to drink, little brother.”

“Please don't tell Mom.”

I tapped my chin with a hoof. “I don't know...”

“Oh c'mon, Wind! Me and Ty were bored and there's nothing to do in this city. We just wanted to check out the fillies.”

“So you came to a fillyfooler bar?”

His ears fell back. “This is a fillyfooler bar?”

“Well, duh. Why do you think you two are the only colts here?”

He shrugged. “I just thought we had come across something pretty awesome and nopony else had found it yet.”

“Right,” I snorted. “And those two?” I pointed over at the mares in the corner, who were still making out.

He shrugged again. “Mares gone wild?”

I rolled my eyes, “Colts.”

Tipsy wandered over, “Hiya, boys. Welcome back. What can I getcha?”

“Oh nothing for them,” I said. “My brother and his friend are still underage.”

Tipsy's expression darkened as she turned to Tor. “That a fact?”

Somehow, my brother's ears managed to fold even further back as a cheesy grin appeared on his face. “Hey Tips, me and Ty are just a couple of stallions lookin' for a good time. You know how it is.”

The barmare was not amused. “Well, your 'good time' could have cost me my license, my business, and my reputation so I'm gonna have to ask you to leave.”

“Tips-”

“Now.” The tone in Tipsy's voice scared even me and I got the feeling she had something hidden behind the bar to deal with unruly customers.

“But-”

“You heard the mare,” I growled. “You and Ty get your plots back to campus quick, fast, and in a hurry and I might be inclined to not tell Mom that her little bad-ass and his deviant friend have been out breaking the law on her bits.”

“Windy,” he whined.

“Vanish Tornado, bucking riki tick, and take Typhoon with you.” I pointed towards the door.

Just then, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard Nimbus say a word and I glanced over at her. She was staring at Typhoon, who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable and his eyes looked everywhere but at her. Her face was completely expressionless but her gaze was as hard as Thunderforge Iron.

She held that expression for a few moments more before leaning in close enough to lick his nose. I didn't hear her voice but I saw her mouth move. “Buh-bye.”

Ty practically flew across the bar and out the door. My brother slunk along in his wake, thoroughly emasculated and embarrassed.

“Sorry about that, Tips,” I apologized. “My brother is a total bonehead who likes to pretend he's older than he actually is.”

“It happens,” she said with a smile. “Good lookin'-out. I had no idea he was that young. I owe ya a big one. Tell ya what, your money's no good to me. Anytime ya wanna booze up, it's on me.”

“Sounds like fun,” Nimbus, who had shuffled over to me, said in a low, sultry voice with a suggestive glint in her eyes.

Tipsy placed a hoof on Nimbus' nose and shoved her off of her bar stool. “Don't listen to the idiot.”

“I never do,” I replied with a wry grin.

x----x

Tornado and Typhoon had disobeyed me. They had not returned to campus like I had ordered but were waiting for us when we left The Moondancer.

I scowled, “What are you two still doing here? Haven't you caused me enough embarrassment for one day?”

My brother scuffed at the cobblestone street with a forehoof, “Listen, Wind, we're sorry. We were bored and there was nothing to do.”

“Why didn't you do your assignments,” I asked as the four of us started walking back towards campus.

“Because we were trying to reduce our boredom.”

“Don't be smart with me. Nim, back me up on this.” I turned to where Nimbus had been but she had disappeared. My gaze roamed the street, searching for the mare. I finally spotted her, with a white-coated stallion, at a nearby intersection. She said something to him and shoved him away. As she tried to leave, he moved to block her. She turned suddenly and picked up her pace. He followed her, trying to press his muzzle between her legs. She bucked suddenly, catching the larger stallion in his chest and sending him sprawling.

I called out to Tor and Ty, “Guys, Nimbus is in trouble.” I broke into a gallop, with the two of them on my tail, and led the way across to the intersection. I saw Nimbus rear up on her hind legs and flail her forelegs for a moment before bringing them down on the pavement. She would have crushed the white stallion's skull if he hadn't rolled away. He spotted the three of us charging towards him and fled.

“You two,” I called to my brother and his friend. “after him. Try and catch him but don't hurt him.” I got out of the way as the pair tore past me in hot pursuit of the stallion. I turned to Nimbus, who refused to face me. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she replied. Her voice sounded somewhat thick and she shifted slightly.

“Nim, who was that stallion?”

“Nopony.”

“That didn't look like you were talking with nopony.”

She gave a harsh, humorless laugh. “Y'know, Wind, my grandmare lived to be one hundred and twenty years old.”

“I don't understand.”

“Y'know what her secret to longevity was?”

“No.”

Nimbus turned to me with such a fierce scowl that I gasped and took an involuntary step back. “Minding her own Luna damned business,” She snarled.

“Alright, alright, calm down. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.” I soothed her. “I'm just worried. It looked like you were in trouble.”

Nimbus sniffed, “I'm a big pony. I can take care of myself.”

I heard hoofbeats behind me and turned. Tor and Ty had returned safely but were panting heavily and in a lather.

“What happened?”

Tor shook his head. “Lost him.”

“Fast...motherbucker,” Ty wheezed.

I nodded, “Alright. Let's head back to campus. I think we've all had enough excitement for one day.”

Chapter 4

As I lay on the Infirmary bunk, a single though kept running through my head.

Potential assassination.

Why? Why would somepony want Nimbus dead? What was she involved in?

I looked over at my bunk mate. Nimbus was staring up at the ceiling. I couldn't see why. The Infirmary was like what one would expect of a military hospital. The walls were built of cinder brick and panted a slate gray, completely unadorned without any kind of decoration whatsoever. It was completely utilitarian in its design, but at least the beds were semi-comfortable and clean.

I rolled over and poked her with a hoof. “Hey, you're going to tell me what's going on and you're going to tell me now.”

“Why should I?”

I snorted. “Because I saved your life.”

She was silent for a moment. “This is my burden to bear.”

“Wrong! This was your burden, but, now I'm involved.”

“I didn't ask you to protect me. I told you I didn't need protection.”

“And I told you that I'm your friend. That means I will protect you whenever you do something boneheaded.”

She sighed in resignation. “There are some...problems...in my family.”

“So what? Everypony has family problems.”

She gave me a level stare. “Oh? Your brother sends hitponies after you too?”

I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”

“I'm from the Cumulus clan.”

“I've heard of them.”

“Then you've heard of our inheritance issues. Too many children, not enough assets. Everypony gets a fair share but any idiot knows that a fair share of very little is next to nothing. My mother really just inherited the house we live in and a few acres of land for farming. The amount of money she got was laughable and it was mostly gone within a few months. My siblings recognized that they'll get practically nothing. Soar, my oldest brother, would have gotten the house and the land.”

I felt my ears fold back. “What do you mean 'would have'?”

Nimbus ran a hoof through what was left of her mane, wincing when it grazed a bandage. “There was an...accident. A stray thunderhead and a bolt of lightning that struck him while he was flying. We think the bolt was what killed him, but he hit the ground so hard, there really wasn't any way to tell. Funny thing was, Skyy, my sister, was nearby when it happened.”

“Oh, horseapples.”

“Horseapples is right. We had no evidence that she had anything to do with it but she's always been cunning and devious. She tried to smother me when I was still a foal. Mom and Dad wrote it off as a little filly not realizing what she was doing but I was told that, shortly thereafter, I was moved into their bedroom and they always watched me closely when she was around.”

Gauze came in to check on us. She was an old-school field medic, or so I had heard, and wasn't much of a talker. Efficiency was the name of the game for her as she moved about, checking wounds and changing bandages. Then, just as silently as she came, she was gone. I didn't understand why she couldn't have said at least a few words. It wasn't like the Infirmary was busy. It was just Nim and I and some random colt who had broken his leg on the obstacle course. I rolled my eyes at the kid's moans and whimpers. It was like he had never been hurt before.

“Why you? What would you inherit?”

Nimbus shrugged, “A few bits, just enough for a piss-poor dowry. I might get a title if the cards line up right. As the youngest, I was the easiest to eliminate. What little I stood to get would be distributed among the rest of my siblings.”

“If you're in that much danger, why not hire a bodyguard?”

She gave a short bark of a laugh. “We don't have that kind of money. It's funny. We're fighting over scraps. There's almost nothing left but everypony wants it for themselves.”

“This is madness. How is it that nopony's intervened?”

“It's been kept quiet, sort of a dark family secret.”

“Dark is right. Sweet Celestia, how did you manage to survive this long?”

“By being tough. That's why I live as carelessly as I do. Tomorrow could be my last day and, even if I end up killing myself, it's better than being killed by one of my siblings.”

I shook my head. “You have one bucked-up family.”

“Don't I know it.”

The door to the infirmary opened and Instructor Line marched in, followed by Head Instructor Striker The two gave the Nimbus and I a passing glance and proceeded to Doctor Gauze.

“How are they,” Striker asked Gauze.

“It looks like Gust took the worst of it. She has a very mild concussion, a dislocated wing, and a few broken ribs as well as several contusions and lacerations on her head, face, and muzzle. Kicker fared a little better but not by much. A massive scalp laceration behind her right ear which I've already sutured, a dislocated shoulder, a cracked hoof, and several contusions around her throat.”

“Recommendations.” Striker was a pony of few words.

“Kicker's fine to be released but she shouldn't do any physical activities for the next week or so. In fact, I'd rather she not walk anywhere. Gust's concussion has me a little worried so I want to keep her overnight. After that, a week of rest for her, no flying whatsoever, and I want her to return for reevaluation.”

Striker nodded. That was one of the nice things about the Instructors of West Hoof. Though they had advanced first-aid training, they were not doctors and knew it. When Gauze made a recommendation, they paid attention.

“Just as well,” Striker replied. “We intend to have Kicker confined to quarters for the time being.”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

He turned to me. “Seems you've made dangerous enemies. Old family habit from back in the day. Don't want you going anywhere unescorted. Safest place for you is quarters. Cadet Season has volunteered to escort you, though I think he was just looking for a way to get out of lectures.”

“Sir, if I'm confined to quarters, how can I attend lectures?”

“You can't. Whole point is to keep you in a safe place where we can easily find you until we get to the bottom of this.”

“If I'm not allowed to leave quarters, sir, where will Typhoon be escorting me?”

“Latrine and any other necessary engagements. He will be on six hour rotation with your brother.”

“What about Nimbus, sir? Who will escort her?”

Striker blinked, “Cadets Season and Kicker will be moved to sentry duty on six hour rotation while you will be escorted by an Instructor to whatever necessary engagements the two of you might have. For now, Instructor Line will escort you back to quarters where you will rendezvous with Cadet Season.”

Slowly, I got out of the bed. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest as I limped behind Line. Fortunately for me, she decided to ride the elevator instead of making me climb the three flights of stairs up to my floor. That degree of exertion was a bit beyond me.

As we neared the door to my quarters, I could see Typhoon standing before it. His head and ears swiveled constantly as he scanned for threats. He was the picture of relaxed vigilance. He spotted us and came to attention, snapping off a salute. Line returned it and I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't raise my fore leg up high enough.

“Don't worry about it, Kicker.” Line assured me. “I think, given the circumstances, we can overlook that formality.”

“I relieve you, Instructor Line.”

“I stand relieved, Cadet Season. Cadet Wind Kicker is in your custody now. See to it that her needs are seen to and that you do not quit your post until properly relieved by Cadet Tornado Kicker at 1200 hours and that you report again for duty at 1800 hours.”

“Aye, ma'am. Instructions received and understood.”

Line turned to me. “Cadet Kicker, you are not to leave quarters unless escorted by Cadet Season, Cadet Kicker, or myself. Is that understood?”

I nodded, “Yes, ma'am.”

As Line left, I felt somepony slip beneath me and lift me up. “What the-! Ty! Put me down!”

“Negative. Doctor's orders are that you are not to walk anywhere. I saw you limping there. You're hurting.” He opened the door and carried me into the room.

“I'm touched that you care that much about my personal comfort but I think I'm capable of walking twelve feet under my own power.”

He lifted me off of his back and laid me down in the bed. “Do you need anything? Water? Pain Relievers?”

I smiled and shook my head. “No, Ty. I'm fine.”

“I'll be right outside...if you need anything.”

“Thank you, Ty.”

He gave a single nod and left, closing the door behind him. I rolled over, closed my eyes, and immediately fell asleep.

x----x

I don't know how long I had been asleep when I heard the door open again. I opened my eyes and saw a rather awkwardly-shaped silhouette slip into the room. I reached over and turned the bedside lamp on. My brother, in the process of carrying Nimbus to her bed, froze.

“Sorry, Wind. Didn't mean to wake you.”

Nimbus rested limply on his back, eyes half-open. “Is she okay?”

He nodded. “They figured she was stable enough to release early, but not before pumping her with enough drugs to drop a full-grown manticore. I doubt she even knows her own name.”

I got out of bed and checked her. Her breathing was regular and her pulse was stable but she was completely unresponsive. “Let me help you.”

“I'm fine. Just get the blanket.”

I pulled the blanket back and helped Tor lift Nimbus into the bed, being careful not to lay her on her injured side. Glancing out the door, I noticed somepony was missing. “Where's Ty?”

“Probably sleeping or, maybe playing with himself. I relieved him about an hour ago. Don't worry, sis, your colt friend will be back soon.”

“My what?”

“Your colt friend.”

“Whoa, whoawhoawhoa, Ty is not my colt friend.”

Tor shot me a horseapples look. “If you say so.”

“It's true.”

“Sure thing, Wind. Do you need anything?”

“A new brother. Mine's about to have a serious accident,” I growled.

“'Ave onna 'ine,” Nimbus mumbled, blinking slowly.

Tor nodded. “I'll be outside then.”

As he closed the door, I ran a hoof through Nim's mane, mindful of the bandages. “How are you feeling?”

She let out a low whine.

“Do you need anything?”

“Mmm-mmm.” She was beginning to drift back out again.

“You'll feel better in the morning.”

She sighed and fell back to sleep. Between the pain from my injuries, the excitement of the day, the worry over Nimbus and what her bucked-up clan would pull next, and the fact that I had already slept a great deal, I found myself restless.

I turned on my desk lamp and opened my psychology book. I had profiled Nimbus' would-be assassin as a jilted lover and I had been wrong. Perhaps if I had been more accurate in my perception, I would have been able to do something and we wouldn't have been in the positions we were.

I poured over my memories of the past few days. I paid attention to the assassin's actions and Nimbus' reactions. She hadn't appeared overly afraid until the day after, when she began to act paranoid. Perhaps her confidence originated from being in such a public place.

It didn't matter. The assassin was dead. Now, what I needed to do was to find out who sent the killer after her and make sure this didn't happen again. Perhaps if I found a way to fake her death, then her family would be notified and...

No, that only worked in bad mystery novels. There were so many consequences and potential buck-ups that I wouldn't be able to foresee all of them. Perhaps if I could convince Nim to renounce her family and give up her inheritance.

No, there were too many consequences to that route also.

Luna damn it all. Were we to spend the rest of our lives living in fear? Sure, I wasn't a member of the Cumulus clan so I stood to gain nothing. I had my lifelong training and the power of the Kicker clan behind me but what did Nimbus have? She had only me and what was I against an unceasing march of trained killers-for-hire?

An idea popped into my head. Nimbus had me and, by proxy, the power of the clan. Since the days of Shadow, any pony who wished to join the clan had to relinquish all titles and inheritances. If Nimbus stood to gain nothing and had the protection of the clan as a Kicker, she would be safe.

There were only two ways this could be done. She either had to be adopted into the clan, which was unlikely as the clan only adopted orphans and she wasn't an orphan, or she had to marry a clanspony. That was the best avenue.

She had already shown affection to Tor, who was obviously interested in her judging by the way he had acted the day before. Then again, Nim was attractive and Tor was a stallion. Two plus two was four.

I had no choice. I had to get my brother to marry Nimbus if I was to protect her. I had to play matchmaker.

I was screwed.

Author's Note

Thanks to Chengar Qordath for the help he's given. Truly a stand-up brony.

Chapter 5

Rapid Strike.

So the would-be assassin had a name.

Because I can be a pest when I want something, Instructor Line shared with me what she had learned in the course of the investigation. Rapid Strike had been trained at West Hoof but was expelled after several instances of overaggressive tactics on the sparring grounds. In fact, during the final instance, the one that would determine his fate, he had severely wounded three cadets and nearly killed a fourth before the Instructors could get to him. This was why sparring matches with multiple opponents were now forbidden.

Since those who were expelled from West Hoof often had trouble finding stable work, he was one of many who found themselves unloading cargo for slave's wages in the Canterlot train yards. Perhaps this was where Skyy Gust had found him.

Gust, for her part, seemed to have vanished after word of the failed assassination attempt had reached her family. Good riddance to Bad Eggs, I say, but her continued absence made me wary. There was no telling where the mare would be. She could be using whatever remaining funds she had to find another knee-breaker to go after her sister. However, I doubted what she would gain from eliminating Nimbus from her family tree could negate the costs of performing such an action. But, if she was actually the one attempting to eliminate Nimbus, she might try again, if only out of spite.

I brought this up to Line and she assured me that the sentries, usually cadets, had been replaced with instructors and were now quite well-armed. West Hoof wasn't taking any more chances. If word got out that the campus wasn't safe, many families would begin to pull their children out and the school's reputation would be tarnished forever.

Instructor Line spent a great deal of time interviewing Nimbus on where she thought her sister might go to ground. The Guard was already out searching for Skyy and any information that she could provide would be helpful.

She gave Line a list of possible haunts but warned that Skyy would be impossible to find if she didn't want to be found. Before leaving, Line gave me a special assignment. To assist in locating Skyy Gust, she wanted me to profile the mare.

Profile Skyy Gust. I hadn't even gotten the profile on Rapid Strike correct, what made Line think I could do any better with an intelligent pegasus who had the connections to virtually fall off of the face of Equestria?

I now had a very full plate. I needed to have private time to grill Nim about her sister, get her and Tor together, and keep her away from the Cumulus clan. This would be quite a feat and I had only a short time to come up with something. Semester break was a mere three days away and, because the Instructors usually went home to their families, cadets were encouraged to do the same. Tor and I would be heading back to the Kicker compound on the edge of Canterlot. He had already told be he'd be bringing Typhoon along. In fact, Typhoon had asked to come along and I was fairly certain as to why. He wanted more time with me.

Since he had been guarding me, Ty and I had become rather close. Despite his rather stoic front, he actually had a rather sharp wit and sense of humor that would expose itself at the strangest times and he could always make me laugh with his wry observations on cadet life. I looked forward to having Ty with us at the compound over the break.

While packing my bags, a thought occurred to me. I needed to keep Nimbus away from her clan, get her close to Tor, and I needed an opportunity to have private time with her. What better way to accomplish all of this than to have Nimbus at the compound with us during break? I told Tor my plan and, surprise surprise, he was immediately on board. Unfortunately, we were making all of these plans without Mom's consent and I knew we would catch Tartarus for it later but it was easier to beg forgiveness than permission. Especially if I had a damn good reason for disobeying Mom.

“So,” I began, closing the door to our room and climbing up onto my bed, “what do you have planned for break?”

Nim shrugged, “Dunno. I thought I'd just head back to Cumulus manor.”

“Seriously? Even with your sister out for your blood? You're going into the belly of the beast.”

“I can't stay here, not without the Instructors. If you have a better idea...”

“I do. You're coming with me to the Kicker compound.”

She sat up. “What?”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Remember when I said I'd protect you every time you do anything stupid? Well, ta-da... besides, Line wants me to pick your brain about your sister so we'll kill two birds with one stone.”

“But-”

“It has already been approved by the powers-that-be, namely Mom, and you're going to come with me and Tor and Typhoon to spend a fun-filled week of intense training, my mother's patented third-degree, and lots and lots of interviews with me about your favorite family member.”

“Your mom actually approved of you bringing the school whorse home with you?”

“Well, to be perfectly honest, I haven't actually said anything yet but I'm sure she'll be fine with it.”

Her ears fell back. “And when will we be leaving?”

“First thing in the morning.” I hopped down and trotted to her wardrobe. “I'll help you pack.”

“Yippee. I don't know how I'll be able to contain myself.” She deadpanned and she moved to grab her pack.

x----x

The legendary Kicker compound was a gift from Celestia to the Kicker clan during the Lunar Rebellion over nine centuries ago. Originally, it was an old fort on the outskirts of Canterlot that wasn't being used. With some work, it was made quite comfortable. That was nine hundred years ago, give or take a decade.

The barracks houses were made into duplexes and triplexes comfortable enough to fit a small family. The mess hall became a restaurant where single ponies on leave or shipping out mingled with compound-bound ponies like caretakers and Royal Guard REMFs. Officers' quarters had been turned into apartment houses for single ponies and the armory was lined with heirloom weapons and armor that didn't belong to any pony in particular but were kept around for instructional purposes.

“This place is huge!” Nimbus cried as we trotted through the front gate. “How many ponies live here?”

“At any given time, between five hundred and a thousand but we can cram up to two thousand. I've surprised you've never seen this place before. We're not exactly isolated out here.”

In truth, while the fort had originally been on the outskirts of Canterlot, the city had grown up around it.

“I've been by on occasion but I've never been inside. All of you are related?”

I nodded. “To one degree or another. Sometimes guests drop by to see somepony but most of us here do have a 'Kicker' somewhere in their immediate family.”

Nim let out a low whistle. “I can only imagine your inheritance issues.”

“That's just it,” I laughed. “There are no inheritance issues because there is no inheritance. The only things that get passed along are a pony's personal affects but any commissions they may have go directly into the clan accounts. That money goes to pay for education, widows and orphans' funds, and travel expenses.”

“So you don't have ponies fighting over inheritance?”

I shrugged, “What's there for them to fight over? It's always been that way, since the days of Shadow.”

“Who?”

“Shadow Kicker.”

Nim gave me a blank stare.

“The matriarch of the only pegasus clan to remain loyal to Celestia during the Lunar Rebellion.”

“Oh, yeah.” She scuffed a hoof. “We don't really talk about that in my family. Apparently, we were from one of the other clans. Er..are you sure your mom isn't going to have any issues with me?”

“Why would she?”

Nimbus stared at me, “Other clans.”

“That was nine hundred years ago. I don't think it matters anymore. I mean, don't expect her to meet you at the door with cookies and milk. She's going to give you a hard time but she gives everypony a hard time. That's just how she is but she doesn't hold a grudge, especially something that occurred almost a millennium ago and that you had no personal involvement with. You'll be fine and, if she starts to get to you, let me know and I'll ask her to tone it down.”

“I'm not worried about it.” She replied off-hoofedly.

“Don't speak so soon. Mom has a tendency to wear a pony down and she'll do an extra effort on you.”

“What makes me so special?”

“You're another mare who's an influence on Tor and I. She wants to make sure you're a good influence.”

Nim started laughing. “Me? If I'm what passes for a good influence around here, I'd hate to see what she calls a bad influence.”

“I wouldn't say that.” I flicked a wing in greeting to one of my cousins. “You're not that bad.”

“I got you drunk.”

“No, I got me drunk. You took me to a bar.” I stopped at a blue painted door, nearly indistinguishable from its neighbors save the lever-shaped handle, and knocked.

“I thought we were going to your place?” Nimbus asked.

“This is my place, but I've been away. Mom wants us to knock if we've been away for an extended period of time.”

The door opened and an imposing mare barred the threshold. Her coat was a pure white, save a large and sparsely furred scar on her throat. I snapped to attention, nudging Nimbus to do the same.

“Cadet Kicker reporting, ma'am.”

The mare's attention shifted from me to Nimbus.

“Oh...er...Cadet Gust, ma'am.”

The mare's ears folded back as she returned her gaze to me.

“I have a good reason for not reporting this to you, ma'am. There was simply not enough time. I can explain further.”

With a single nod, the mare stepped back, allowing us in.

“Tor will be along shortly. He's brought Typhoon Season with him.” I turned to Nimbus. “I'd like to introduce my mother, Second Lieutenant Drift Kicker. Mom, this is my bunkmate, Nimbus Gust of the Cumulus Clan.”

Mom snorted loudly.

“I'm sure Nimbus feels the same way. That's part of the reason why I had to bring her.”

Mom continued to stare at me for a moment before turning and heading for the den.

“She doesn't speak much, does she?” Nimbus asked, quietly.

“She can't. There was an accident of some sort. She never got into specifics and always gets really irritated whenever we bug her for details. Just leave it alone.”

“So, how is she going to give me the third-degree?”

“I did say it was 'patented', didn't I? She speaks through gestures and body language. You'll learn to read it. It's really very simple to understand, once you get used to it.”

Mom clopped, drawing our attention. She jerked her head into the den.

“She wants us to join her?” Nim guessed.

“See, you're getting it already. Like I said, simple to understand.”

We followed Mom into the den where we all sat on some fairly comfortable pillows. After a moment, Mom gestured to me.

“Okay...uhm...you know Nimbus is a member of the Cumulus clan. They have some issues with inheritance and, anyway, Nim's sister is trying to kill her for her share of whatever.”

Mom gestured for me to continue.

“I got involved and there was this big fight with this thug that used to attend West Hoof and I'm sorry, I know you've told me a thousand times to stay out of things like that, but he was going to kill her. Anyways, now there's this investigation and Instructor Line wants me to talk with Nim about where her sister might be and I needed someplace safe to do that so...yeah.”

“Your articulation is beyond words.” Nimbus quipped.

“Shut up,” I shot back out of the side of my mouth.

Mom clopped for our attention again before raising a hoof and flicking it at me.

“Don't you need somepony to translate?” I asked.

Mom shook her head.

“Are you going to show her up when your finished or do you want me to come back?”

Mom flicked her hoof again.

“Alright. I guess I'll just leave you two fillies alone”. I turned to Nim and wished her luck before hurrying off to my bedroom.

x----x

I had just finished unpacking when the door open and Nimbus came in, looking exhausted and queasy. Mom came in behind her and cocked her head at me.

“I'll make the rounds once I get her settled in, say about an hour?”

She gave a single nod and disappeared, closing the door behind her.

Nim let out a long breath and sagged a bit. “You weren't kidding about the third-degree. I don't think she likes me.”

“Oh no. If she didn't like you, you'd know it. I remember when Tor brought home a new fillyfriend that Mom didn't approve of. She dragged that poor mare, by her tail, out the door, across the compound, and bucked her through the front gate with enough force to launch that pony across the street. Compared to that, I'd say she already considers you part of the clan.”

“If you say so.”

“I think she pities you. Family has always been really important to her and she doesn't like ponies being mistreated by their families. She's always the one convincing other Kickers to take in orphans or abuse cases so that they'll grow up to have a nice life. She's really a big softie, once you get to know her.”

Nimbus snorted. “That's like saying she's a nag but you'll get used to it.”

“Hey!” I snapped, “That's my mom, you're insulting. Go easy on her, she's lived a rough life. After Dad was killed on Long Patrol, she had to raise us by herself and it wasn't easy. I mean, there's Kickers left and right so there was never a shortage of foalsitters or ponies to help out, but I can tell she still misses him.”

Nimbus' ears lowered and, for a moment, I regretted my rebuke. “Sorry,” she said. “It's just, these past few weeks have been...” She let out a heavy sigh.

“Hey, don't worry about it.” I said as I helped her with her bags. “That's why we're here, so you can relax and see how a family is supposed to treat each other. Also, I want you to think long and hard about where Skyy might be hiding. Line wants me to come back with information on your sister and I have no intention of letting her down.”

Chapter 6

Nimbus seemed to recover from Mom's interrogation in record time and was feverishly babbling about the experience, one that I had enjoyed on many occasions.

“And the most amazing thing is that she didn't do a single thing. She just laid there and stared at me. Normally, that wouldn't make me say anything but I just got the feeling that she already knew everything about me and she was just waiting for me to say it. It wasn't even an intimidating stare, just the stare of somepony who knew she had all the time she needed to get what she wanted out of you. Every time I tried to stop or lie, she just continued to stare at me until I broke and told her more.

“Then, she knew when the story was over. I didn't have to say anything, she just knew. She got up and started pushing me towards your bedroom. Your mom is the most amazing mare I have ever met.”

“Yeah, she's pretty neat, how she can get inside your head without having to do anything. Aunt Draft,” I called out, waving a wing for her attention. Mom's twin sister, Draft Kicker, had been quite pregnant when I had last seen her, just before I left for West Hoof. Now, she was slim and muscular without the massive foal-barrel of a pregnant mare.

I trotted over with Nimbus moving behind. Aunt Draft smiled before turning and nuzzling something tucked away on her back. I got a peek at the incredibly adorable yellow fuzzball that was Aunt Draft's foal. I gasped, “Is this her?”

Aunt Draft giggled, “Yes. This is Rayne, your new cousin.”

The tiny pegasus shifted slightly and gave a huge yawn. She blinked and looked up at Nim and I, her muzzle splitting into a huge grin.

“Awww,” I cooed. “Hi, sweetheart. Oh, you're just too precious.”

“Hi, sugar. Hi there.” Nimbus said in a sing-song voice.

She and I spent a few minutes more fawning over Rayne before moving on across the compound. There was a large area, far away from the houses, where Kicker unicorns practiced their magic. The area was wide and open with targets for offensive spells against the far wall, which was reenforced to withstand wild blasts. The field was mostly vacant save Tor and Ty, who were playing with one of the target dummies.

“What are those two doing?” Nimbus asked in a long-suffering voice.

“Dunno. They're up to something bad, though.”

“What makes you say that?”

“They're stallions, it's in their nature.”

With a loud whoop, both Tor and Ty fled from the dummy, which detonated a moment later. The blast launched the dummy into the air. The wood flipped end over end before smashing against the ground.

The noise startled both Nimbus and I and echoed throughout the compound. In the distance, a foal began to scream and I hoped those two idiots hadn't disturbed Rayne.

“Whoa,” Nim said.

“How did you two get your hooves on explosives?” I bellowed as I charged toward them. “How dare you steal explosives from West Hoof's armory.”

“What are you talking about, Windy? Ty and I made those.”

I looked at the crater and splinters that had once been a training dummy, “You made that?”

“And a few others. We hid them around the compound but we weren't sure they would still work.”

“And what would possess you to detonate one of these explosives on the compound in the middle of Canterlot?”

Tor shrugged, “Why not?”

“Why not?” I made a show of tapping my chin with a hoof, “Well, let's see, aside from detonating an explosive in the middle of the Equestrian seat of government, you scared the willies out of every single pony in earshot and probably terrified the life out of poor little Raynie.”

“Who's Raynie?”

“Aunt Draft's daughter. Oh, by the way, once Mom hears about this, and she will hear about it, she is going to skin the both of you alive.”

Ty's ears lowered, “I'm not her foal.”

I grinned, “That's never stopped her before.”

“Wind, please, ya gotta cover for us.”

“What's in it for me?”

Tor raced to think an offer, “I'll do all of your assignments for the rest of term, for the rest of the year, for the rest of your time at West Hoof.”

I made another show of looking about, pretending to consider his offer. “Umm...no.”

“Wind, c'mon!” Tor actually whined, “Name your price!”

“My price? Justice!”

“Speaking of the mare.” Nimbus announced.

I turned in time to see Mom trotting across the field towards us and never before had I seen her so angry. She marched up to me, a fiery glare in her eyes. Of course she would come to me. I was the older sister, the good filly, Mother-may-I and all that. I shook my head and pointed at the Devastating Duo to my right.

Mom gave a single nod, marched over to Tor, and gave a sigh, patiently waiting for whatever excuse he could cook up.

He took a breath, opened his mouth, and hesitated. “I got nothing.”

Mom nodded and gripped his ear in her mouth.

“Owowowowowowowow,” Tor whined as he was led away, Ty following quietly in his wake.

Nim didn't need to see Tor crying like a foal when Mom paddled his plot. I may be the mean older sister but I'm by no means a sadist. Besides, I was trying to get him and Nimbus together and her seeing him in a moment of shame would be detrimental to that.

I took the lead again as Nimbus and I followed the sounds of screaming. I was correct in assuming that it was Rayne, who had a death-grip on Aunt Draft while she screamed her little lungs out.

“What in the name of Celestia was that?” She cried, working through her own irritation to soothe her foal.

“Tor and one of his buddies being idiots.” I told her, “Don't worry, Mom's got him.” I leaned down and nuzzled Rayne. “Did mean ol' Tor scare you with his big boom? I sorry. You're okay, though, and Auntie Drift's gonna take care of it.”

The foal's screams quieted to moans and sobs as I continued to nuzzle her. Eventually, she rested her head against Draft's neck and dozed off.

“Thank you, Wind. You're a miracle-worker. I have been trying to calm her down since that blast but she wasn't responding to anything. I tell you, your talent should have been foal-rearing.”

“In a way, it kind of is. She was afraid and she needed somepony to tell her it's all okay.” I gave her another nuzzle. “See? All better.”

With that crisis over, Nim and I wandered over to the sparring ground. She had boasted, time and again, of her prowess with a wingblade but I had never had the opportunity to see her in action. I donned my training blades and my armor and did a few light warm-up exercises while I waited for Nim to join me.

“Do you know what the difference is between you and me?”

“What's that?” I asked as I turned around.

Nimbus struck a pose in three-quarter profile, lifting her left foreleg, spreading her wings, and proudly displaying her borrowed Kicker-red armor. “I make this look good.”

I chuckled and shook my head as I spread my wings. “Are you going to preen or fight?”

“Have you noticed my cutie mark? I was born for wingblade combat.”

“Ponies are born for many things.” I replied, coolly. “That doesn't mean they do those things well.”

Nimbus' grin seemed slightly demented as she crouched into a defensive posture and stretched her wings to their full length, “Then stop your chatter and show me some of that legendary Kicker combat training.”

I reared up and charged, slinging left and right as Nimbus moved to block me. I raised my left wing and brought it down towards a strike point on her head. She blocked me with her left.

Excellent.

I had sought to surprise her with a right wing to the flank but it was she who surprised me by trapping that wing under a hind hoof. I twisted and came down on my back, exposing my belly. This would have been a terrible idea but it was a tactic I knew how to pull. I immediately wrapped my legs around Nim's body and pressed my body to hers.

“Windy, if you wanted to do this, you just had to ask. We didn't need to go through this dance.”

My gambit had worked. Distracted, she lowered her wings slightly.

I beat her head, scoring several points. She managed to pry me from around her barrel and fling me a few feet. I rolled to my hooves and spun to face her. With some distance between us, we paused to reassess the situation. Both of us panted as we stared each other down.

I shot into the air while Nimbus stood and watched. I straightened my legs and plummeted. This was the same tactic I had used against Rapid Strike but it wouldn't harm Nimbus nearly as much. Kicker armor was top-quality stuff.

I looked down and checked my position. Moments before I struck, Nimbus vanished. She just disappeared.

I landed and scanned for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. I pushed myself up on my hind legs, thinking that might give me a better vantage point.

I felt a pair of hooves strike my back with enough force to send me, muzzle-first, into the grass. A trickle of blood leaked from my left nostril but that was the worst injury. My armor had absorbed the worst of the blow without any damage. I reflexively spread my wings as I pushed myself back up and Nim took this opportunity for a double-strike along both of my patagium. My vision darkened at the edges. Shadow's ghost, that hurt.

I pulled my wings in close and forced myself up on shaky legs. Nimbus was really doing some damage, but I was a Kicker and I could fight better. I opened my wings again and waited, acting distracted and in pain.

She took the opening I gave her, moving well within striking distance. I reared up and bucked, catching her in her soft stomach and hearing the satisfying clang of my hooves striking home against the plate armor.

Given our recent injuries, which still weren't completely healed, we probably shouldn't have been training this hard, but I had reached my wit's end with Nimbus and her constant braying of how well she was able to fight with a wingblade. I wanted to beat her at her own game.

I spun and charged, watching her carefully to make certain she didn't vanish again. She did nothing but stand there with that damn superior smile of hers.

“I'm coming to get you, Nimbus Gust!” I roared as I lowered my head.

Nimbus had other plans. She ducked beneath me, spread her wings, and took off. She had always been one of the fastest and most powerful fliers at the academy and here I was, seeing it first-hand.

Before I could react, Nimbus had begun her descent. Because I was riding her backwards, I couldn't open my wings and simply glide off of her. The drag of the wind against my wings would likely tear out a few primaries and secondaries.

I stood and started to turn around, precariously balanced atop her plot. Thank Celestia, nopony was watching us or they would have died laughing. We must have been quite a sight.

Moments before impacting the ground, Nimbus leveled-out and rolled, dumping me from my perch. My momentum carried my curled-up body halfway across the compound before I slid to a halt. Nimbus landed atop me and pressed her hoof to my cheek, painfully pinning my head to the ground.

She leaned close and whispered in my ear, “I win.”

Damn, she had.

x----x

After showering, I met Nimbus in Mom's study for a bit of a talk. When I arrived, the mare was curled up on the floor, quietly preening. I've often heard it said, usually by Unicorns and Earth ponies, that a Pegasus' preening was for aesthetics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Preening was quite necessary to keep our wings and feathers clean and free of parasites. It worked to reaffirm social and familial bonds and preening circles of pegasi, cleaning each others wings, were a common site in pegasi clans.

Nimbus strained to reach a particularly troublesome spot near the wing joint and wasn't having much success.

“Here,” I said, “let me.”

I sat down behind her and took her feathers in my mouth, slowly working my teeth along each one. As I worked, Nimbus told me about her sister.

“She's incredibly intelligent. I said she was cunning before, but that was an understatement. She's charismatic and manipulative. If she can't talk you into doing things her way, she has other means at her disposal and she's not shy about using them. If your not careful, she'll have you eating out of her hoof within an hour of meeting her.”

I spat a bit of dust into the waste bin, “She's that good?”

“She's better than good. She can make anypony do anything she wants.”

I paused in my work. “So, she has a lot of friends?”

“She runs with a group of ponies that seem a little...off. A little to the left, please. Anyways, these ponies have always scared my parents, so much so that they forbade Skyy from seeing them. So, what does she do? She starts sneaking out to see them.”

“What can you tell me about these friends of hers?”

“Not much. They always spoke very quietly. I know, talk about cliched, but it was enough to spook some ponies. Skyy would disappear for days at a time to go and be with them. For a long time, we didn't see them, but then they showed up right before I left for West Hoof.”

“They have any sort of distinctive markings?”

“Nothing really. They were kind of big and scary but Skyy was the scariest one. Not because she was adept at combat, but because the others would do anything she said without hesitation.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” I replied, finishing off the last of her feathers. She had done a pretty decent job by herself, but this was a task best suited for another Pegasus. “All done.”

Nimbus stretched her wings and turned to me. “Thanks. Now, let me do you.”

I blinked, “Pardon?”

“I said, let me preen your wings. Sweet Celestia, Windy, keep acting like that and I might start thinking you want me to buck you. C'mon now, about face. Tit for tat and all of that.”

I turned around and spread my wings, allowing her to begin her work.

“Tell me about your family. What's it like growing up in the world-famous Kicker clan?”

“Well,” I began, “we start with combat training pretty early on. Usually, it's the parents who train the foals but, sometimes, there are specialized instructors that do the teaching. As a clan, we've become pretty self-reliant with everything from cooks to smiths to educators but, as the family saying goes, 'Every Kicker a Guardspony'.”

“So all of you are trained for combat?”

“Some more than others. If a pony's special talent is pastry-making, obviously we're not going to put them on the front. They stay here, in the safety of the compound, making pastries. Those who's talents lie in medicine or any form of combat, they are encouraged to attend West Hoof and become a career Guardspony.”

“Only encouraged?”

“Well, it's not like we're going to put a spear to their heads. The decision ultimately lies with them, but we'd rather not see all of that training go to waste. What do you think of my brother?”

That's it, Wind. Go for subtlety. I did say I sucked at matchmaking, right?

Nimbus leaned over my withers to look me in the eye. “What?”

“My brother, Tor. The pony who's been following you around like some lovesick puppy. What do you think of him?”

She shrugged and returned to her work. “He's sweet.”

I winced. “Already struck out, hasn't he?”

“Not necessarily. Even at my age, I've been around the block a few times with more than a few block-heads. I'm starting to think that 'sweet' might be enough. He's pretty cute...and attentive,” she added as an afterthought. “While we were recuperating, he was always there every time I was out, rushing to my side if he thought I so much as stubbed a hoof.”

“You know he likes you.”

“C'mon, Wind. Give me a little credit. I'm not completely oblivious.”

“Well...?”

“Well, what?”

“What do you think?”

Nimbus was silent for a second before replying, “I think I like him too.”

Right about then, the subject of our conversation poked his head in the door. “Nim? Wind? It's time to eat.”

“We'll be right there.” I replied. Then, with a grin on my face, I asked, “How's your plot?”

The glare he shot me was downright evil as he flattened his ears and ducked his head. “Sore,” he snapped before disappearing.

“Wow,” Nimbus said, “If looks could kill...”

Chapter 7

It was the second day of break and I was alone in my room, trying to separate the information Nimbus had given me from my own thoughts and form all of the information into a cohesive statement. This wasn't an easy task as much of what Nimbus had told me had been related to my questions, but out of chronological order and tainted with her own bias.

In trying to separate the gold nuggets of truth from the muck of opinion, I had to establish which was which. Anything descriptive of Skyy Gust, which was most of what Nimbus had given me, was automatically out. Descriptions were subjective and, therefore, opinion. It didn't help that I didn't know Skyy personally.

My bedroom door slammed open and Nimbus marched in, clearly irritated. Actually, that was a bit of an understatement. More accurately, she was royally pissed.

“Something wrong?” I prompted.

“Oh, is something wrong.” She snorted, paced a bit, sat down, stood up, and resumed her pacing. “Is something wrong, she asks.”

“Would you mind telling me?”

“Your brother...” she pointed an accusatory hoof out the open door. I looked, but Tornado was nowhere in sight.

“What about him?” I knew Tornado had ponynapped Nimbus earlier to have a bit of fun and allow me time and privacy to work, but, apparently, things had gone sour.

“He tried to preen me without my permission!” she snapped.

My jaw went slack. The wings of a pegasus are among the most sensitive parts of the body. The sensation of touch, on them, is akin to sexual stimulation and to touch another pegasus' wings without their expressed permission, especially a pegasus of the opposite sex, is a grave sin. “He didn't.”

Nimbus gritted her teeth and nodded in the manic manner of a pony with barely-restrained rage.

“What did you do?” I asked. Given her reputation and what I knew she was capable of, I feared the worst.

“I gave him a kick he won't soon forget.”

“Is he still breathing?”

“Yeah, but I don't know why I bothered checking.” Nimbus replied with a roll of her eyes.

I hopped down off of my bed and had a quick stretch. “I should go make sure he's okay. Where is he?”

She turned and started out the door, “I'll take you to him.”

As she led me to him, I questioned her about what had led up to Tor molesting her wings. I knew my brother wouldn't do something that terrible without a good reason. He's a good pony and I hoped that he had merely brushed her wings, accidentally, and she had overreacted. “What happened? What were you two doing?”

“Nothing really. He and I were over by the sparring ring and just, sort of, goofing around. He asked if I wanted to get off the compound for a while and get some lunch. He knows this place that has great hay fries and soy burgers. I said that sounded like a good idea, but, when we were getting ready, I noticed I had a few feathers out of place. So I'm trying to get those feathers, right, and he just grabs my wing and starts doing them himself. Not even bothering to ask permission, first. I mean, yeah, I was struggling a bit, but that isn't permission, last time I checked.”

“No, it isn't. Still, he's never done anything like this before. He probably just thought he was helping out.”

Nimbus scoffed.

“I'm serious. Mom and Dad raised him right, taught him to be respectful of mares and that he could look, but not touch. He's young. He got carried away.”

“I can't believe you're defending him!”

“He's my brother.”

“I'm your friend!” she snapped.

I stopped her with a hoof to the chest. “Hey, calm down. You being upset isn't helping any pony. Yeah, your reasons are valid, but I'm trying to figure out what happened and I want everypony's side of the story. Right now, Tor is innocent until I found out otherwise.”

“And, if you do? You going to tell your mom?”

I gave her a steely gaze. “Mom will be the least of his worries.”

I found my brother and Ty cowering beneath the bleachers that surrounded the sparring ring. The huge bruise and crescent of dirt that clung to his alabaster coat showed where Nimbus had struck him. The moment he spotted me, Ty began to dance nervously, torn between solidarity with his friend and wanting to run as far away as possible.

I nudged Nimbus with a hoof, signaling her to stay back. This situation was already going to be hot and I didn't need her flinging fuel on the fire with accusations.

Typhoon decided what he wanted to do and trotted towards me. “I know this looks bad, Wind, but I swear it was an accident.”

“That's not what I'm hearing.” I replied.

“You know what kind of a hot-head Nimbus can be.”

“That's why I told her to stay back. I don't need her, or you, interfering.”

“Wind, seriously, this is all just a huge misunderstanding.” He pleaded.

“I really hope you're right, Typhoon.”

“I am right. I saw the whole thing. Look, we were fooling around and Tor wanted to get something to eat so he invited Nim and I over to this place around the corner. Wonderful little diner. We were gonna fly, but Nim had some feathers out of place so she sat down to preen. She was having some trouble with it and Tor asked if she wanted some help. I guess she didn't hear him or whatever because she didn't answer so he just stepped up to help her. Next thing I know, he's on the ground and she's feathering possessed.”

“Thank you, Typhoon, but I'd rather hear the whole thing from my brother.”

Tor was sitting up with all of the bravado of a pony on his way to the gallows. I trotted up to him and sat down. “Are you hurt?”

“A bit sore.”

“Got ya good, didn't she?”

He grimaced and nodded. “She's got some power in those kicks.”

“So, tell me what happened.”

He coughed. “It was really stupid and I'm really sorry, Wind. We were gonna go around to the Lunch Box to eat and she was preening, but she was having some trouble. I asked her if she wanted some help and she grunted so, I thought that meant 'yes' and I went to help her. The second I touch her wing, she kicks the horseapples out of me.”

I gave a sigh. “You know better.”

“I know, I know, and I'm really sorry.”

I sat down and rubbed a hoof along my muzzle. “Tornado, why do you have to make life so difficult?”

“Hey! I said I was sorry!” He snapped.

“I don't want your apologies. The mare you need to convince is over there.” I pointed at Nimbus and Tornado seemed to sag slightly.

“I don't think she's in a forgiving mood.” He said.

“Be that as it may,” I replied, “You need to show remorse. When she is in a forgiving mood, she will forgive you. It was a stupid mistake. A mistake that you made and you need to apologize to her for it.”

“Are you going to tell Mom?”

I shook my head. “I'll leave that up to her. If she feels the need to do that, I won't stand in her way.”

He sighed and stood. I took the lead and brought him over to her before taking up a position between them and just to the side, ready to step in if Nimbus lost her temper.

Her stare burned into him and I could see the muscles in her jaw working as she ground her teeth. Her ears were flat against her head and her entire body was tense as she seemed to pulse with displeasure. Tor, who was nothing if not observant, picked up on this and nervously ran a hoof through his mane.

“Uhm...listen. I-I'm really sorry about what happened, touching you like that. All I wanted to do was help, nothing more, and I legitimately thought that grunt you gave was an affirmative. I didn't mean anything by it and...and...and...” He hung his head, “Sorry.”

I was never more proud of my brother than then and I knew Mom, and Dad, if he were still alive, would be proud. Not of the circumstances surrounding his gross misjudgement, but of the fact that he owned up to it like a true stallion would.

Nimbus turned her gaze to me and I kept my expression a mask of careful neutrality. I gave a single nod to confirm that his words were sincere, but nothing more. She returned her attention to him and sat silent for a moment, her muzzle twitching occasionally as she mulled over his words.

“Alright, kid. I like to think that I'm a fair pony and I can see where things got lost in translation. That's not to say that I forgive you, not yet, but I do accept your apology. You're gonna have to work hard to get back into my good graces.”

“Anything,” Tornado exclaimed, happy to have the chance to correct his wrongdoing.

She turned her back to him and spread her wings. “First, you're going to preen me. Then, you're going to buy my lunch. That'll be a good start.”

As he got to work, I trotted up to Nimbus and whispered in her ear. “You're a sly mare.”

She gave a low chuckle before emitting a surprised yelp. Raising a forehoof, she whacked Tor's leg. “Take it easy.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled around a mouthful of feather.

Author's Note

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated. I was waiting on Comma-Kazie to catch up with me on the editing end, but, between technical difficulties, his schedule, and mine, that doesn't look like it's going to be any time soon.

Another thing. I know this chapter is really short and I'm sorry you've all waited so long for so little. IRL, I've taken on serious new responsibilities and don't have as much free time as I'd like. Again, sorry for that. Hopefully, this little bit will tide you over for a while.

Chapter 8

My brother did his very best to be an absolute gentlecolt. Holding doors for Nimbus, straightening her cushion, and doing everything else in his power to win his way back into her good graces. Nimbus, for her part, seemed to enjoy the attention while pretending to be immune to his flattery. However, she was fair to him, occasionally giving him some small gesture to let him know to keep up the good work.

With the coming of summer, warmth and sunlight stretched to all corners of Canterlot and Equestria. Nimbus was firmly establishing herself as a member of the Kicker clan in all but law and blood. Unfortunately, this meant that she lost her “guest” status and no longer enjoyed Mom's expert preening, a privilege now reserved for Typhoon only.

As I said before, preening worked towards reaffirming social and familial bonds. Guests took prominence and were usually tended to by the head of the household. In this case, Mom. Typhoon could tend to whomever he pleased and it came as no surprise when he asked to preen me. As the elder sibling, I was usually seen to by Tornado, but he had chosen to see to Nimbus so I saw to him. Nimbus took my place at Mom's back. The entire group looked skewed and wrong somehow, but Kickers never let anything like that stop them.

Once chores and training were finished, we were granted leave to do as we please, which was usually nothing. Once spot in particular seemed to be a favorite by unspoken agreement, the far back corner of the compound. It was a small stand of trees, there of aesthetics mostly, that was large enough to give us room and secluded enough to give us privacy.

Typhoon and I wandered a short distance from Nimbus and Tornado. Finding a spot covered in soft pine needles, I lay down. He settled down next to me and immediately began to play with my ears.

I twisted my head away and nipped at him. “Cut that out.”

He grinned and began to nip at my mane, seizing a few strands and gently tugging. I placed a hoof against his withers and pushed him away.

“Typhoon, what's gotten into you?”

Unable to reach me with his head, he began to flick his tail at my flank. I had seen this, on occasion, when watching the younger fillies and colts. A colt would declare his interest in a filly by knocking her down, harassing her, and generally being a pain.

I noticed the way he kept shifting and, on one of these shifts, I caught a glimpse of something pink between his hind legs.

Sweet Celestia, he was horny.

“Put it away.” I growled, annoyed that he would try to pull such an uncouth stunt within spitting distance of my mother.

His ears fell back. “If you didn't want to play, why did we leave Nim and Tor?”

“Oh, I have no problem with playing,” I clarified, “but we will not be doing that here. Do you understand?”

He seemed to deflate. “Yeah.”

I giggled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Don't look so glum, Bubby. Just because I said I didn't want to do it here, doesn't mean I don't want to do it.”

Typhoon rolled onto his back and wiggled about to rest his head against my flank. “Wind, do you think we could ever have foals?”

The turn of subject startled me. I had never given the idea of having foals much thought. I was fully-focused on my career and I had to be if I stood any hope of making it through West Hoof. That's not to say I didn't want foals, some part in the back of my mind reminded me of how much fun I had playing with my little cousins and the various foals that passed through the compound throughout the years. I knew raising children, especially Kickers, was difficult work and I couldn't handle anything more.

“I don't know.” I replied, honestly. “I suppose, maybe someday, when things aren't so hectic in my life, but that might not be for a long time.”

“I've always wanted little ponies I could raise in the image of Shadow.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. The Shadovar took the legendary stoicism of Shadow Kicker entirely too far. While I admired my ancestor for her logic and loyalty, I knew she had far more flaws than her cult gave her credit for. I had read about the Rebellion and her role in it and knew that Shadow was far from perfect. History glossed over the mare's vices and embellished her virtues.

“If you want.”

He rolled to look up at me. “You don't agree?”

I had to choose my next words carefully. As a direct descendent of Shadow, I had been placed on a pedestal by Typhoon. If I spoke ill of his idol, I risked damaging his beliefs. That was something I didn't want to do, despite the fact that I disagreed with him on many points. “While I respect her in many ways,” I began, “I think that she was anything but flawless.”

“But the fact that she worked past these flaws to achieve greatness makes her all the more worthy of our admiration.”

And a debate was on the horizon. Ty was studying Theology and Philosophy and knew how to counter my arguments, if only by doing the verbal equivalent of sticking his hooves in his ears. Every point I could conceivably come up with, he had a counterpoint ready and waiting. An intellectual debate would devolve into a shouting match as surely as water was wet. I had to think of something to distract him.

He had recently bought a hat, more because he thought it made him look roguish and enigmatic than to actually keep the sun from his eyes. I rolled over and snatched the accessory from his head. “Mine!”

Success. He immediately rolled to his hooves and tried to retrieve the garment. “Wind, give it back!”

I shot up and flipped it onto my own head. “You want it? Come and get it.” I taunted, turning and trotting away from him, keeping my steps small. There was a thundering behind me and I looked to find Ty charging. I had the advantage of being lighter and more agile, able to twist away from him faster than a thought. He chased me as I wove between trees, doing my best to keep his attention.

“C'mon, big boy. Can't catch me!”

“Wind, seriously.”

“You must not want it that bad. You don't seem to be putting that much effort into it.”

I burst through the brush to find my brother and Nimbus. I thought they had been too quiet and, now, I saw why. He had her pinned on her back and was currently tongue-wrestling her.

“Nice to see the two of you have made up.” I chirped as I galloped a circle around them. Startled, Nimbus suddenly closed her mouth, biting Tornado. He squealed and jumped back, only to be clobbered as Typhoon tried to leap over him. Both stallions tumbled across the ground before Ty disentangled himself and continued pursuit. Laughing, I poured on the speed, ducking my head to streamline my body.

Suddenly, I felt his fore hooves wrap around my hind legs as the momentum swung me around. My hooves were yanked out from under me and I hit the ground hard. I took the hat from my head and held it under a hoof, keeping my body between it and Typhoon.

He clambered over my back, pinning me to make sure I didn't take off again. “Wind, give it back.”

“No,” I giggled. “Mine!”

He bit my ear and pulled at my head, trying to move it to give him a shot at his prize. “Gimme,” he growled through gritted teeth.

When it became apparent that I had no intention of returning his hat, he released my ear and settled his weight.

“Ty, what are you doing?”

His wingtips brushed along my flanks, slowly and gently at first, but building speed gradually. I sucked in a gasp and began to laugh as Typhoon tickled me. I strained against his bulk and my hooves scrabbled in the dirt, but I could not move. Twisting and pushing, I tried to escape but he held me fast. I twisted and tried to bite at his wings. However, I could not reach them. Finally, I kicked away the hat. With his prize within his grasp, he released me and rushed to seize it before I recovered. I rolled over and fought for breath as I watched as he took up the garment and dusted it off with a shake of his head. He returned it to his head and, with a hoof, lowered it to hide an eye. He was, once again, going for the roguish approach. The incorrigible stallion who broke hearts and made foals, but, because the hat was filthy and crushed, he just looked silly.

I stepped towards him. “Take that thing off.” I said softly, “You look ridiculous.” I took the hat in my teeth and pulled it off, tossing it to the ground. We leaned closer together, staring into each others eyes. Slowly, he began to lean toward me. My heart began to flutter and I found it hard to breathe. I felt hot and sick. I wanted to puke, but this was my first kiss. I would not be sick on Typhoon Season.

“Aww, aren't they adorable?”

Immediately, I backed away, shooting a murderous glare at Nimbus and Tornado. Typhoon lost his balance and fell to the dirt.

Tor draped a wing over Nimbus' back. “A truly beautiful moment. Typhoon, if you break her heart, I'll break your legs.”

“Duly noted.” Typhoon replied from the ground, his voice somewhat muffled from the dirt.

A shrill whistle sounded from across the compound. Mom was calling and it was urgent. Tornado and I shared a look before taking to wing, flying as fast as we could for the house with Nimbus and Typhoon on our tails.

Mom was waiting when we landed, a scroll tucked beneath her wing. Without waiting for us to catch our breath, she offered the scroll to me. I took it and, noticing it was a direct correspondence from Instructor Line, wasted no time in opening it.

Nimbus, ever nosy, leaned in to read past my neck. “What's it say?”

“Apparently, your sister's been spotted,” I responded, “in Freeport.”

Freeport. A hive of scum and villainy. It was a haven to those who had run afoul of Equestrian law. It made sense that Skyy Gust would seek refuge there.

“Did they get her?” I could hear the note of hope in her voice.

I shook my head. “The guard was about to apprehend her when she fled with a few others. They searched the inn that she'd been staying in and found some information.”

“What kind of information?”

“It doesn't say. Just a warning from Line to keep our ears up and to remember that they'll be increasing the security at the school with checkpoints and random screenings.”

“Horseapples.” Nimbus muttered, turning away.

“You're telling me.” Tornado growled. “How are we going to sneak booze onto campus now?”

A low growl caused him to look up. Mom's glare burned into his soul.

His ears fell back. “Oops.”

Chapter 9

I can't say that I was happy when break ended. I felt restored being with my kin and doing what felt familiar, but the time had come for us all to return to West Hoof. With our bags packed, we started for school. It wasn't far, only a few hours walking distance and we were soon joined by other classmates.

The crowd around the gates was thick as students waited to be ushered through the checkpoints. I recognized the light armor of the ponies working them as Long Patrol. These must have been the ones on rotation who were conscripted to secure the school until Skyy Gust had been found. However, I noticed security was a little tight for one untrained mare and a hoof-full of cohorts.

Long Patrol Earth Ponies stood at each of the four long tables that had been set up at the gates to West Hoof. These were accompanied by Unicorns, who used their spells to search for anything that might be hidden on the student. Nimbus and I went to separate tables and relinquished our bags for inspection. The Earth Pony gave a bored sigh and began with the usual round of questions, speaking as if reading from a script.

“Did you pack your bags yourself?”

This was completely inane and unnecessary. This was a school. Instructors, most of which being retired career guardsponies, were protecting their students, most of which had gone through basic training, from a group of thugs and their charismatic pseudo-leader. I decided that a bit of fun was in order.

“No. Your mother packed my bags. If you find any articles of leather or toys, please leave them. I would like to return them in good condition.” I answered with a grin.

The pony, a Private by his insignia, paused in his rummaging to roll his eyes. “Have your bags been in your possession since you packed them?”

“No. For good luck in the new term, I set my bags across the street last night before going to bed.”

“Look, filly. I'm just trying to do my job.”

“And I'm just answering your questions.” I replied innocently.

“Better watch out for this one.” A voice said from behind. “She's a troublemaker.”

I turned to the dark-coated pegasus behind me. “Blizzard, is that you?”

Blizzard, Aunt Draft's eldest son, cuffed me over the head with a wing. “Stop giving Idle a hard time and let him do his job.”

“This is so stupid.” I complained.

“But necessary. We want to make sure that the school is safe.”

“The school is safe.” I insisted. “Every pony has some form of military training or another and the instructors aren't pushovers. They've all been in command positions at one time or another. Most have more battle experience than you.”

“I don't know much. We were all called in to make sure you bookworms can do your studies without having to duck and cover. I was looking forward to meeting my new sister.”

I grinned, retrieving my bags from the table. “Rayne's absolutely adorable.”

“I'll see her later. By the way, aren't you friends with the mare who's in the middle of all of this?”

I nodded, “Yeah. She's less happy about it than you are, believe me. The sooner we catch Skyy Gust, the better.”

x----x

The air in our dorm room was a little stale after being shut up for so long. I opened the window and left the door ajar to create a breeze way and air out the room while we unpacked.

“Feeling any safer?” I asked as I set my books on my desk.

“I suppose I should, but I don't.”

“What do you mean?”

Nimbus sighed. “Skyy is driven. She'll get what she wants, come what may. Don't assume that, because she's greedy, she's stupid. She'll find a way in here, despite the guards and the sentries and the gates. If she can't sneak in, she'll kick down the walls and she'll bring a friggin' army in with her.”

“Don't you think you're being a little paranoid? That's the Long Patrol out there. I ran with them for a while before I came here. We fought Bandersnatches, and Dragons and Manticores and things you've only seen in nightmares. I have no doubt that they can handle your sister and whatever fools fall behind her.”

She nodded, “I hope you're right.”

I pulled half a dozen scrolls from my pack. My notes on Skyy Gust for Instructor Line. “I have a meeting. Are you going to be okay?”

“I'll be fine.”

I left her and headed down to Instructor Line's office, which was on the ground floor of the Dormitory. The letter she had sent me instructed me to meet her there immediately upon returning. I raised a hoof and tapped on the door.

“Enter.”

I entered the office and shut the door behind me. “Cadet Kicker reporting as ordered, ma'am.”

Line nodded. “Did you do as I asked?”

“Yes, ma'am.” I set the scrolls on her desk. “I put together as comprehensive a profile as possible, considering the circumstances.”

She took one of the scrolls and spread it upon her desk. “What did you learn?”

“Skyy Gust is your stereotypical narcissist. She cares nothing for the ponies around her and only sees them as a means to an end. Her greatest strength is her charisma, able to manipulate the ponies around her into doing her bidding. If she's not able to get what she wants directly, she'll do it indirectly.”

“Why do you think she's after Cadet Gust?”

“Originally, for whatever Nimbus would inherit. However, it seems that what little she would gain from Nimbus' share wouldn't cover her expenses in taking care of her sister. I now believe she will attempt to eliminate Nimbus purely out of spite.”

Line nodded, “Makes sense.”

I waited while Line read through my notes. Finally, I couldn't hold my pressing question any longer. “Ma'am? Why is the Long Patrol here?”

Line blinked. “I figured it would be obvious, Cadet. They're here to protect the school.”

“Yes, ma'am, but the issue I have is that it wouldn't be necessary to call in the Long Patrol. Skyy Gust and her band of Merry Murderers are little more than just that while every cadet here has some form of prior military training and the Instructors are seasoned veterans.”

Line sighed. “We have reason to believe that Skyy Gust isn't working alone.”

I cocked my head. “I don't follow you.”

“The information we have recovered from Skyy Gust leads us to believe that she has connections to the Lunars.”

I gasped. The Lunars consisted of the four pegasi clans and most of the Earth Pony race that had rebelled against Princess Celestia over nine hundred years before, in the time of Shadow. I had heard rumors that pockets still existed, scattered throughout Equestria. Because they were unable to band together into a unified fighting force, they were considered non-threatening and left alone. From what I could gather from Nimbus, Skyy possessed the charisma to unify the Lunars.

“We also have reason to believe that the Lunars are planning an attack on Canterlot. If they struck the school...”

“It would be impossible to hide such an attack. We'd all be in terrible danger and the damage they could potentially inflict would be catastrophic.”

“Exactly.” Line confirmed with a nod. “You see now why we need the reinforcements provided by the Long Patrol?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

I returned to my bunk with a lot on my mind. What had originally appeared as a case of sibling rivalry gone incredibly too far now seemed to be the opening shots of a second Lunar Rebellion. On her bunk, Nimbus napped in the breeze from the open window, snoring peacefully. Perhaps her time at the compound had rubbed off on her. Everything was put away neatly and her side rivaled mine in orderliness.

Perhaps I was over-thinking all of this. The Lunars were little more than idealists that posted the odd anti-solar poster and made a ruckus in the streets. They were no longer the type for organized attacks. I doubted that any of them had military training. Likewise, Skyy was greedy and little more. She would use the Lunars, pretend to hold the same ideals as they, but her greed would, eventually, show through in the end.

I rested my head on my pillow. I hadn't really done much, but my talk with Line and the information she had shared left my head swimming. I was utterly exhausted.

And yet, I could not sleep. Skyy Gust kept running through my head. Could she actually unite the various bands of Lunars under a single banner? Nimbus knew her sister better than I did, but her knowledge was somewhat biased. All young ponies held their elders in such high regard. Nimbus may have exaggerated her sister's prowess in the art of convincing. However, that was a chance that I, and apparently, the school, was not willing to take.

Include the information about the Lunars selecting Canterlot, and we were in for a whole heap of trouble.

I began to mull over what targets they might select. The palace was too well-defended and rather confusing if one didn't know their way around it. Not to mention, Celestia wasn't exactly a pushover. The pony that many others considered a goddess incarnate would prove to be tough to handle if threatened. Even the largest army the Lunars could muster would have their hooves full simply containing an Alicorn.

Celestia's school could be a target, but all of the ponies there were powerful magi. While West Hoof Instructors and Cadets could consider themselves adept in close-quarters combat, the ponies at Celestia's school were masters of the occult.

Duke Polaris held no strategic threat for those who aspired to usurp the throne while West Hoof churned out the leaders of tomorrow's Guard. Eliminate West Hoof and her cadets and the Guard would crumble within a few generations.

West Hoof was the easiest and most likely target. I hopped off of my bed and rushed to the door with the intention of warning Instructor Line before stopping myself. Line was no imbecile and would have come to those same conclusions, hence why battle-hardened ponies were guarding our gates instead of spending time with their families.

I paced back across the room and lay down on my bunk. I had just gotten after Nimbus for being paranoid and, her I was, acting worse than her. We had nothing to fear. Even if the Lunars overwhelmed the Long Patrol, the sounds of battle would draw attention. Both the palace and the compound were within shouting distance. Certainly the school and the Patrol could hold off any attack long enough for reinforcements to come.

And that was on the assumption that an attack was even coming. The group could have been in the brainstorming stages, talking about which targets they would like to hit. West Hoof was the easiest and most strategically valuable, but that didn't mean that they would strike the school. Surely they realized the danger of attacking the school.

Line only stated that the information gathered led them to believe that an attack on Canterlot might occur, but nothing as to where or when.

I sighed. I was over-thinking this. I was just a mare, barely out of fillyhood. I had homework and lectures and classes and family and friends. I needed to take care of the things that affected me, not project “what-if” scenarios until my head ached.

I closed my eyes and settled in. Tomorrow was the beginning of the new term, my last at West Hoof, and I needed to rest.

Chapter 10

The presence of the Long Patrol on campus caused a bit of a stir, especially among the younger cadets. Not all of them had been in the Patrol before enrolling and they had all heard the stories. While most of said stories were incredibly exaggerated, they enthralled audiences just the same. Here and there, the occasional Patrolpony regaled cadets with tales of bloodthirsty Bandersnatches, marauding Griffon pirates, and terrifying Dragons. Each more epic than the last.

While they seemed playful and relaxed, the Patrolponies were diligent about their work. I had seen more than a few poking around with the aid of one of the school's maintenance ponies. There were a great many more here than I had originally thought, enough that they had a visible presence outdoors with a few to spare to patrol the lecture halls. Some wandered along the tops of the walls, kept sentry by the gate, and I even spied a few snipers settled on the roofs. West Hoof was beginning to look less like a school and more like a fortress.

Tornado and Typhoon escorted Nimbus and I to our classes, the recent assassination attempt still fresh in the minds of the school's Instructors. Four ponies presented a greater threat than a pair of mares. Not to mention, it was a possibility that, since I had thwarted the previous attempt, I might find myself in Skyy's cross-hairs.

Nimbus seemed to be more tense than ever. Her entire posture had changed. What was once a proud continence and an almost arrogant stride was now a slow-depressing trudge. I knew what was wrong. She prided herself on being independent, not needing any pony for anything. Everypony going through all of this trouble just for her must have been a huge blow to her confidence.

“Maybe I should leave.” She observed to nopony in particular.

“Why would you do that?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Really? She's after me and me alone, alright? I-I-I mean, I'm putting every pony else in danger by being here. It doesn't matter how many stand in her way, she'll still come. These...these Long Patrol ponies, I'm sure they have better things to do than stand around watching my back. I'm sure they want to go home and see their families, and play with their foals before they have to go back out again.”

“Nimbus...”

“No!” She barked. “Everypony is putting their lives on the line because of my stupid, greedy, sister. How many are going to die when they come? How many, Wind?”

A hot lump formed in my throat. “Nim...”

“Nopony is going to die.” Tornado said.

“What do you know? Can you predict the future, Tornado Kicker? When they come, and they will come, they'll kill every...single...pony here. You, Wind, Ty, the Patrol, and every single cadet. They. Will. All. Die!”

My hoof lashed out without my bidding and struck her. Her head snapped around with enough force to crack her neck. She stumbled and nearly fell before turning back to me, shocked into silence. I surged forward and wrapped my forelegs about her, pulling her into a tight hug.

“No pony is going to die.” I hissed, fiercely. “No pony is going to die because there are hundreds of well-trained ponies here to protect you. Where are the ponies that want you to leave? Where are they? Do you see any of them waving signs? Do you hear any demanding your expulsion? It's not a secret that you're in the middle of all of this, but nopony wants you to leave. You're safer here than anywhere else and there's nothing saying that they'll attack simply because you're here. There's nothing saying they'll attack at all. You only think your presence is a danger to the rest of us, you selfish whorse.

“I don't want you to leave. Nimbus, if you even entertain such thoughts again, I'll beat the horseapples out of you. You hear me? Don't you dare abandon us. You are a Kicker and Kickers don't abandon their own.”

I felt her forelegs meet across my back as she leaned into my embrace and began to tremble.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Nopony's ever cared about me like that. I-I know I've been freaking out over nothing and...”

“Shut up.” I snarled. “I don't want to hear any more of that crap. You're going to be fine. We're going to protect you. We Kickers don't abandon our own. That means all Kickers.”

“That's right, Nimbus.” Tornado said, stepping forward to wrap a wing around her. “We've all got your back and we won't let you down.”

“Did you rehearse that?” I asked.

“A little,” he admitted. “Did it sound rehearsed?”

“Somewhat, but it wasn't bad. There was a little too much emotion.”

Nimbus giggled and removed a leg to wrap it around Tornado's neck, pulling him close. “You have no idea how much I love you two. My colt friend and my best friend.”

“Give me a break.” Typhoon muttered, rolling his eyes. “This couldn't sound more hammy if you added birds.”

I broke away to wrap Typhoon in an embrace. “Don't worry, Ty. We wuv 'oo.” I gave him a playful nuzzle.

Over the campus, bells began to ring. The first lectures of the new term were beginning. Nimbus flashed me a bright smile.

“Race ya!”

x----x

I sat on my bunk, watching Nimbus study. Celestia be praised, the mare was actually studying. I swear, I heard the spine of her Strategic Studies textbook crack when she first opened it. She glanced my way with an awkward smile before returning her attention to the book.

“If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.”

“What? Me studying?”

“No. You actually being able to read.”

She chuckled. “Those jokes about me being stupid are getting pretty old there, Windy. Especially considering I can best you in anything.”

“Ah-ha, you only think you can.”

She hummed, tapping her muzzle thoughtfully. “Well, let's see. I've kicked your flank in combat, equaled your grades here, your mom loves me more-”

“Oh, now I know you're full of horseapples.”

“Then I think you should know, I now have an open invitation to kick it on the Kicker Compound whenever I please.”

My eyebrows shot up at this news. “Really? That's wonderful news.” Nimbus had won her way into Mom's good graces at a speed that surprised even me. Since Mom approved of Tor's new fillyfriend, she wouldn't raise any objections to a marriage. I was content to let nature take its course. I didn't want to pressure Nim or my brother into making a commitment they might not be comfortable with. At any rate, my original intentions had been seen to and Nimbus was safe from her family. Even if things between her and Tor didn't work out, she still had a safe harbor whenever she needed it.

I rolled onto my back and stretched my legs leisurely. This final semester was going to be one for the record books. Not only did I have to do my regular studies, but my finals were going to be an arduous week-long marathon of exams that would test the endurance of the best scholar.

With a sigh, Nimbus closed her book. “I'm bored.” She complained.

“I thought your name was 'Nimbus'?”

“Oh, hardy-har-har. You know what I mean. All of this studying stuff is great, but it's really not in my nature.”

“What made you start up with that anyways?”

Nimbus looked away. “I don't want to disappoint Lieutenant Kicker.”

That caught my attention. “You're trying to impress my mom? Why?”

She shrugged. “She's the first pony, in a long time, to ever demand the best from me. Most write me off as some sort of accident waiting to happen. They think I'll get knocked-up from one of a long line of stallions or I'll die of alcohol poisoning. She's the first mare to see potential in me and expect me to live up to it. For some reason, her opinion of me really matters.”

I nodded. While Mom wasn't the most affectionate of ponies, she knew a good pony when she saw one. She demanded the best of any pony she came across and none wanted to let her down. It was some method she had of instilling a drive and desire for success that worked miracles when all else failed.

“What do you say we go out?”

I shook my head. “It's late. I'm tired and I don't want to be hungover for class tomorrow. This is a really important time for us, Nimbus. Maybe we should hold off on letting our manes down until after we graduate. Besides, we need to stay near the school, where it's safe. It won't do for all of the ponies protecting you to be here while you get popped in the streets. Anyways,” I checked my alarm clock, “It's way past curfew.”

“Since when has that stopped me?” She asked, climbing down off her bunk.

“Nim, seriously, don't.”

“I'm not going far. Just down to the Moondancer. I want to see the fillies.”

“We're gonna get caught. I didn't do all of this work for you to screw it up by getting us expelled.”

She shrugged. “So stay here.”

“No way. You're not going out alone. In fact, you're not going out at all.”

“Sorry, Windy, but if you want to stop me, you're going to have to tie me up.”

“Don't tempt me, Gust. I know six methods of restraint.”

“Kinky.” She grinned as she disappeared into the dimly lit hall.

“Nimbus, seriously, get back here!” I hissed, following at a trot. “This is a really bad idea.”

“Nopony's holding a spear to your head.” She hissed back.

“Nimbus, If I have to go tell Line, I will.” I threatened.

She called me out immediately. “Do it. I dare you.”

I didn't. Instead, I merely hung my head and followed her.

Once outside, she became a great deal more cautious. I watched the various patrols in the area. A team of Pegasi were in the sky, pulling lazy figure-eights as they scanned for threats. Unicorns were on the walls, each standing at a single point, no more than a dozen pony-lengths from each other. Earth ponies watched the entrances in groups of three, usually with another Pegasus or Unicorn in their number. A few Instructors were out and about, as well. Chatting with the guards.

Aside from the usual assortment of equipment like wing-blades and battle lances, each group kept flares ready to signal the other groups in the event of an attack. However, I could tell from their lazy and relaxed postures that they weren't incredibly diligent about their tasks. Who could blame them. They were used to keeping a constant eye for dangerous threats, not guarding school-foals.

Nimbus chose a spot on the wall that seemed to have the widest gap between guards, fluttered her wings, and disappeared over. The two guards didn't seem to notice.

I took my chance, mimicking her movements. As I came over the wall, I discovered I hadn't allowed enough clearance and my hoof caught on the edge, sending me tumbling down the other side as I let out an involuntary yelp.

Immediately, the two unicorns lit up their horns and began to scan the area. Nimbus and I flattened ourselves against the wall as the trails of light passed close. Too close for my own comfort. Finally, satisfied that there was no threat, they snuffed their lights and went back to their posts. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Nimbus, not wanting to linger, was already across the street before I followed, fighting the urge to gallop.

We made our way down side streets and alleys, meandering for the Moondancer. Nimbus had done all of this before, being notorious for sneaking off of campus after curfew. Despite how many times she had done this, she had never been caught. I was amazed at how she knew exactly where she was headed, despite the seemingly random turns she made. I would have been lost in an instant. Canterlot looked completely different after dark and many of the landmarks I had come to rely on were invisible.

After what seemed like an eternity, we emerged only a block from the front door of the Moondancer. The bar was silent as we entered. A bell rang, causing Tipsy to look up and pause in her sweeping.

“Isn't it past your bedtime?” She asked.

“Well, that's what I said.” Nimbus replied. “But Wind, here, would not shut up about how much she missed you. I figured if we came out, she would finally pipe down and let a hard-working mare sleep.”

I gaped at Nimbus, shocked that the mare would throw me under the carriage like that.

“Uh-huh. Horseapples.” Tipsy declared as she resumed her sweeping. “More likely, it's the other way around. I say Windy's got more sense n' ya an' only came to keep your plot outta trouble.”

Score one for Tips.

“But, since ya came all this way, why dontcha have a seat? Ya look like you've got somethin' on your mind, Nim. Tell Tipsy your troubles. Sometimes, it helps to have an extra pair of ears on th' issue.” She reached behind the bar and pulled out three bottle of Sweet Apple Acres cider.

“Family issues.” Nimbus said, taking a swig from her bottle.

“The best kind.” Tipsy replied. “If I had a bit for every time somepony came to me with 'family issues'. I coulda retired long ago and been livin' fatter n' Celestia.”

“That's a lot of ponies.” I commented. “Ever considered a career in psychology?”

“Waddaya think I do here? Besides mix a mean cocktail.” She leaned close. “Listen, filly, bein' in the booze business is more complicated than seein' how much I can wring from the sorry sods who wander through my door. I gotta change my personality thirteen times from one end of the bar to another, dependin' on who that particular pony needs me to be. I can be a mom, a friendly ear, a shoulder to cry on, a guardspony, a guru, anythin' and I gotta do it all while hidin' how I really feel on the subject. I gotta give good advice or somepony could get hurt on my word. I can't have that on my conscience, now can I? But, at the same time, I can't haul off and knock 'em a good one either. I gotta be straight and deceitful and make it all believable. Can ya dig it?”

I saw Tipsy in a new light. Originally, I thought of the bar mare as a goof who liked to flirt with her customers while putting on a good show. Never once had I considered that she was a rather deep and wise pony. She had taught me more, in one statement, than I could have learned in a lifetime at West Hoof. “Yeah. I think I do.”

“Alright. Back to you, dumbplot. What kinda mess did ya find yourself in this time?”

“Inheritance.”

Tipsy hissed disapprovingly and I caught a mutter of “If I had a bit...”

“I didn't know your folks had gone hooves-up.”

“They haven't, but it's already been established who's going to get what.” Nim responded before taking another pull from her bottle. “Thing is...it's not much. My greedy nag of a sister wants everything for herself. She's already seen to my brother and is trying to take care of me.”

“Let me stop ya right there, Nim. I don't really think I'm the pony you should be telling this to.”

“We've already told the powers that be.” I clarified. “They're looking for Skyy, but they aren't having much luck.”

Tipsy nodded and gestured for Nimbus to continue.

“It's just...I'm scared. I know I live like this Discord-May-Care filly and that's because I want to live my life, not hide under some bed and wait for her to come to me, but, Tips...” She drew a ragged breath and displayed the first signs of sheer terror I had seen from her. “I don't want to die.”

“Well, what pony does, Nim?” Tipsy replied. “There ain't no denyin', this is a real mess. The way I see it, you've got two options. You already know what those are, but you've gotta ace-in-the-hole.”

“A what?”

Tipsy gave us a sly smile. “Did I ever tell ya about how I got my hooves on the Moondancer?”

When she received no reply, she began her tale.

“It was in a game of Hoof-full, oh, about ten years ago. I was just a little older than ya. I've always had a talent for that game. It's that personality thing I was talkin' about. Anyways, in Hoof-full, a pony has ten cards. Each of those cards is assigned a number value from one to eleven. Aces can either be one or eleven, depending on how the player wanted them. Celestia was a ten, Luna was a nine, Discord was an eight and it went down from there by face number. The object of the game was to have the highest value hoof, get as much money from the other ponies as possible, and win the pot of bets in the center. Now, the way to get the most money was to make all of the other players think ya had the highest hoof, which was done by bluffing. The way to bluff was to keep adding bits to the pot. Still with me?”

We both nodded. Tipsy drained her bottle and sat back, a faraway look in her eyes.

“I was hotter n' the sun that night. Filly Luck wanted to be my gal and I kept trading hooves for bits. Eventually, it was just me and this old colt who was stubborn as a mule. His coin purse was as deep as the sea and he just kept emptying it. Eventually, when all of his money made it to the pot, he pulled out the deed to this place. I didn't have the bits to match his bet, so I offered him the only thing I could...me. Ten years of doin' whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Period. Whether it was knockin' me around or knockin' me up. He agreed to the wager and we placed down our hooves, but not before I scratched myself. The card I pulled out was an ace, which was enough to bump me above him. Yeah, I know. I took a big risk that night. If the ace I pulled out matched his...well...let's say I wouldn't be havin' this conversation with ya tonight.

“My point is; my ace helped me to win. It was my secret weapon that no pony knew about. You do too, Nim. Ya got Windy. This mare's got the best head on her shoulders that I've seen in a long time. She can pull ya through anything if ya just listen to her and do what she says.”

“Wow, Tipsy. I had no idea. Do you still play?”

The unicorn shook her head. “Nah. Since I took over here, I've either been too busy or too tired to even think about another game. Anyways, that last match scared me straight. I remember goin' back to my room and shakin' for a good hour, thinkin' about how big a risk I took and how close I had come to really screwin' my life up.”

I looked up at the clock on the wall and noticed the hour. “Nim, we gotta go.”

Tipsy nodded, “Yeah. I gotta be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow. I'd hate to show you two the door, but...”

We got up and started for the door.

“Hey, fillies.” We turned back to Tipsy. “Watch yourselves out there. I'm older now, too old to go and make new friends. I'd like to keep the ones I have.”

Nimbus turned and rushed back to the bar mare, embracing her tightly. “I love you too, Tips.”

The older Unicorn gently nuzzled Nimbus before pushing her away. “Go, before you get us in trouble. I know it's not in your nature, but be careful out there. Wind, watch her back. If I find out that she gets killed, I'm coming for your pelt.”

I gave Tipsy a little salute before turning and leaving. Once outside, I let Nimbus take the lead as we retraced our steps, favoring the alleys for the main streets. Even though I had a better idea of where we were going, I still didn't trust myself enough to travel it alone without getting hopelessly lost.

In short time, we found ourselves at the wall surrounding the school. Selecting a different position, we hopped over and landed near the Long Patrol's temporary shelters that were set up on the school's hoofball field.

“As enjoyable as that was, I don't think we should do it again.” I commented as we started back towards the dorm.

“What are you whining about. I've never been caught.”

“Freeze!”

The command startled me into stillness as we were bathed in bright white light. The silhouettes of three armored ponies stood in the light. The one in the center started forward.
“Well,” said Blizzard. “You're the last one I'd expect to see out here. Your mother will not be happy about this. Not in the slightest.”

Chapter 11

Never before have I been so embarrassed. Judging by how Nimbus looked, I'd say she felt the same way. Blizzard had returned to his post, but left the two others with us. Instructor Line was less than pleased to be awoken in the middle of the night. She paced on the far side of her desk, huffing in irritation.

“What I want to know is what the hay you two were thinking?” She snarled without looking at us.

“It's my fault, ma'am.” Nimbus spoke up. “Wind tried to stop me, b-”

“No!” Line snapped. “She obviously didn't try hard enough. I expect better of my cadets. Gust, you know what we're doing here. There is no excuse for what you did. None. And, Kicker, you know what's expected of you. You didn't try to restrain Gust. You didn't come to me. You didn't alert the sentries. Instead, you went with her. Where did you two go?”

Nimbus puffed out her chest. Line's glare became deadly. She leaped over her desk to get right into Nimbus' face. I could put one, maybe two, but not three sheets of paper between their noses.

“Now is not the time to be defiant, Cadet.” She must have caught a whiff of Nimbus' breath. “A bar. Which one? No, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you sneaked off of campus after curfew, which, alone, is grounds for expulsion. At any other time, I might be willing to turn a blind eye, but, with the new security measures, I have to account for the whereabouts of every cadet under my supervision. I've sent runners to your parents.”

Right on cue, I felt a hoof connect with the back of my skull with a hard thunk. Mom sat down, quivering with rage as she glared at me. I wanted to shrink down to the size of a Breezy and just blow away.

Mom's muzzle twitched as she turned her attention to Instructor Line.

“Thank you for coming, Lieutenant Kicker. I apologize for the hour. If I could just have your patience for a few moments more while we wait for Cadet Gust's father, we can begin.”

Mom gave a single terse nod before returning her attention to me. I quailed under the weight of that glare and knew that my world was about to come crashing down.

But, then, her contenance shifted from anger to disappointment. Her ears lowered and she lowered her gaze to the floor, sadly shaking her head. Frankly, I would have rather had her angry. Anger, I could deal with, but I couldn't take the knowledge that I had just broken my image in her mind. I was her good filly, mother-may-I, and, with one poor decision, I had destroyed years of trust.

Then, her attention turned to Nimbus, who tensed in expectation of a blow. However, she simply repeated what she had done with me, looking, if anything, worse. Maybe Nimbus didn't know how to read Mom, but I did. Mom held such high hopes for the mare. She saw potential where everypony else, myself included, saw only wasted space. This betrayal, if nothing else, hurt the most.

The door opened again and a beige stallion, the exact copy of Nimbus, trotted in, still blinking sleep away from his eyes. He sat down next to Nimbus and fixed his eyes on Instructor Line.

“What's this all about?”

“Mr. Gust, thank you for joining us. It seems that your daughter, accompanied by Cadet Kicker, left campus this evening to one of the many drinking establishments in the city.”

Mr. Gust turned his attention to his daughter. “Nimbus, I know I raised you better.”

“Yes, sir.” Nimbus mumbled.

“So, why did you do it? Why did I send you here?”

“So that I would make something of myself.”

“Exactly. So that you could become a proper mare who knows her place. But you haven't, have you?”

Nimbus stared at the floor, silent.

“Hello!” He bellowed into her ear, causing her to wince.

“No, sir. I haven't.”

“So, what is to become of all of this, I wonder. Is my daughter to become some drunken street whorse?”

“Actually, Mr. Gust. Cadet Gust has done quite well in her studies. Because of that, because this is her first infraction, and because of the current...climate...surrounding your family, I'll be lenient. It is my belief that this is the safest location for your daughters. That's not to say they won't be punished, but they will not be expelled.”

Mr. Gust let out a short bark of a laugh. “Well, how do you like that? It looks like your sister saved your plot, Nimbus.”

Mom clopped for my attention and, by the look in her eyes, I knew my punishment would not end here. I would be the Clan's maid until she felt I had learned my lesson. I remember once, when I had brought home failing grades, she had requisitioned an entire wagonload of bricks. My punishment was to carry those bricks, one-by-one, across the compound and stack them, neatly, on the other side. No sooner had I completed that then she decided she didn't want the bricks after all and had me return them, one-by-one, to the wagon and pull it back to the mason's workshop.

I haven't brought home failing grades since.

Mr. Gust left for his bed with Mom following behind and, we were, once again, left alone with Instructor Line.

“There is still the matter of your punishment, Cadets.” She began, “Starting tomorrow, you will awaken one hour before reveille and clean the toilets. All of the toilets. I will be going back to bed.” She got up and began to leave.

“Ma'am, it's one hour before reveille.”

Line blinked and nodded. “Then, I recommend you get started.”

x----x

Sweet Celestia, I have no idea what they fed the stallions, but it made a mess. Their toilets were disgusting. I stuck my head in the bowl, maneuvering the brush with my lips as I scrubbed. I would need to shower for a full day before I felt clean again.

At the urinals, I could hear Nimbus muttering oaths around her scrub brush.

“I don't know what you're complaining about.” I called to her. “You're the reason why we're in this mess.”

Latrine patrol was more of a pain in the plot than many thought. Every time a stallion came in, we had to leave out and wait by the door. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be a problem, but the issue was that it was never one stallion. As soon as one would leave, another would enter, then another, and another. Eventually, when the toilets were finally clear, we would have to restart completely. It took us an hour just to complete one restroom. One!

Thankfully, we didn't have to clear out of the Mares Room, but that held its own little gross surprises. Namely, the heat bags. Those little fabric cylinders that every mare began to use when she came of age and began her heat cycle. They were never very full, but they always smelled putrid and the fact that some mares simply couldn't deposit them into the proper recepticle was downright ridiculous. I had a new found sympathy for the maintenance ponies.

With a sigh, I deposited my scrub brush into my bucket and stretched my sore neck. Being bent at such an awkward angle for such a long time had left me with a kink.

I left the last stall we had to clean and noticed that Nimbus was just finishing up on the urinal.

“How do stallions use these?” She wondered.

“It's obvious. Look,” I reared up on my hind legs, resting my forehooves against the wall. “they stand against them like this, so that their penis is hanging over it, and let 'er rip.”

She stared at me with a look of horror. “How do you know this?”

I shrugged. “I've cleaned my fair share of toilets. On the Compound, bathrooms tend to be more Unisex and I don't always have to clear out when somepony wants to make water. So tell me, was it worth this?”

“What?”

“Sneaking out. Was that worth cleaning every bathroom on campus and risk getting expelled, ruining everything you or I have ever worked for. I swear Nimbus, I should kick you right between the legs. You deserve nothing less.”

“Yeah, I feathered up, but you didn't do much to stop me!” She accused.

“Oh? Am I your mommy now? Is it my job to keep you in line? You're a grown mare, Nimbus. Take some responsibility for once.”

“Just because I don't spend all day with my muzzle pressed to a book doesn't mean I don't take responsibility. If you didn't have your head up your plot, you'd see that. No wonder your nose is so brown.”

“My nose may be brown, but at least my head isn't twice the size of my body. You're so full of hot air that you don't so much fly as float.”

“Are you saying that I'm nothing but talk?”

“I'm saying you're an obnoxious, foalish, egotistical, asinine, plot-hole.” I snapped.

We stared at each other while the tension built. Finally, with a roar, Nimbus leaped at me.

The fight was nothing short of epic. We hurled hooves and insults as we rolled across the floor.

“Stupid nag,” I snarled, my hoof smashing into her muzzle.

She swung, barely missing my head. I swung my hind legs, catching her in the stomach and sending her into the wall. I followed her, headbutting her in the chest. We became a pile of flailing hooves and wings before we were pulled apart. Tornado's forelegs were wrapped around Nimbus and Typhoon had me pinned to the floor.

Nimbus was already in a rage as she struggled against my brother. “Let me at her. I'll kill the nag. I'll kill her. Call me a plot-hole, will you?”

She nearly broke free, but Tornado used a foreleg to swing up onto her back and ride her to the ground.

“Enough, both of you!” He snarled. “You're in enough trouble, as is. Keep this horseapples up and Instructor Line might actually expel you, regardless of what Skyy might be doing.”

“Stupid nag called me a plot-hole!”

“We wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't sneak off of campus last night!”

The glare that Tornado turned on me reminded me so much of Mom that ice shot up my spine.

“Shut up, Wind.” He hissed. “If you ever want to speak again, shut up.”

For a moment, I wanted to reprimand him for speaking to me in such a way. In the Kicker Clan, we were raised to respect our elders. All of our elders. But his glare, so much like Mom's, caused me to rethink that idea. I had a feeling that speaking would be the last thing I would ever do. Slowly, I shut my mouth and glared at Nimbus.

“Now, I understand that you are both under a lot of stress, more than would be considered the norm, but that is no excuse for going for each others throats over nothing but Latrine duty and a few insults. Typhoon and I are willing to turn a blind eye and not report this, but only if you two are willing to shake hooves and be friends again.”

They released us, but kept close to prevent trouble as we approached each other. Nimbus' muzzle began to twitch, an odd tick she displayed whenever she was irritated. We stared at each other, neither of us dropping our gaze. As immature as it may sound, we were in a battle of wills to see who would break first.

“Apologize.” Tornado growled.

Nimbus lowered her head and muttered something.

“So you can be heard.” My brother snapped.

“I'm sorry I got you in trouble!” She practically screamed. Turning to Tor, she snapped, “Happy?”

He displayed the biggest, cheesiest grin I have ever seen. “Very.”

“Your turn now, Wind.” Typhoon encouraged.

“I'm...uhm...I'm sorry I called you an obnoxious, foalish, egotistical, asinine, plot-hole.”

“I'm sorry I called you a brown-noser.”

“I'm sorry I called you an airhead.”

“I'm sorry I said you were incapable of getting a date because you're such a nerd.”

I blinked. “You didn't say that.”

Her ears lowered and a light blush of embarrassment tinted her face. “Oh. I guess I was thinking it then.”

“Listen, Nimbus,” I stepped forward and placed a hoof to her withers. “I know you want to go out and be your own mare and all of that, but there is a time and a place for everything. This isn't it. I promise, when your sister is gone and we graduate, all of us will go and party and drink until we can float back to the Compound. Until then, we need to play it safe and by the rules. Which means no more sneaking out, no more drinking, lots of studying. Copacetic?” I removed my hoof and extended it to her.

She stared at my hoof for a moment before extending her own to meet it. “Deal.”

Typhoon gave a grunt and nodded in approval while my brother all but cheered. Now that our mutual tantrum had been settled and the bad blood had been cleared away, we could get back to the matters at hoof. Because of our punishment, we were missing out on a lot of lectures. Tor and Ty had gone to our various Instructors and pleaded our cases, explaining that this was an isolated incident caused by enormous amounts of stress. As such, the Instructors were kind enough to hand over any assignments we may have missed and copies of whatever notes were needed. We now had a lot of work to do.

Unfortunately, we still weren't done with the day's cleaning. Nimbus and I divvied up the rest of the restrooms between us and parted ways.

x----x

I stared at the notes I had been given, trying to make sense of Instructor Wing's mouth-writing was next to impossible. The mare would give Gauze a run for her money when it came to unreadable writing. I couldn't tell if one squiggle was a “P” or a “Q” Given the context, I was gonna run with “P” until proven otherwise.

Nimbus returned from the showers, swinging her towel from her neck and hanging it in her closet.

“It's going to mildew in there.” I warned.

She grunted and climbed up onto her bed, standing for a moment before collapsing.

“You would do well to review the notes Tornado got for you.” I said, turning back to my own work.

Her only response was a snore.

“Or not. Whichever works for you.”

I didn't know how I was going to get this done. Pass my courses with high marks, give all of the toilets on campus their daily scrubbing, protect Nimbus, live to see my next birthday. My list of things to do was growing by the day. It was a little overwhelming. Okay, it was incredibly overwhelming and, quite frankly, I was scared. I sat back in my chair and folded my forelegs across my chest as the events of the past few months began to swirl around my mind. We had been lucky, very lucky. How long would that luck hold out?

With a sweep of a foreleg, I flung all of my papers and books from the desk and sent them tumbling across the floor. Nimbus awoke with a snort and eyed me sleepily.

“Wind?”

“What's the point of it all? I'm so sick of this. I'm sick of waiting and watching my back and busting my plot. Why bother anymore? If the nag's going to come, let her come. I'm so done with all of this. If she kills me or I kill her or she's arrested and you're dead, I don't care anymore. I just want this all to be over with!”

I broke. I'm not proud of it. I'm known for having a calm and level head in extremely stressful situations, but even I have my limits. I had finally reached them. I wanted to puke. My guts churned, but nothing came out. Finally, I doubled over and slammed my head against the desk in defeat.

Nimbus immediately rushed over to me. “Hey, hey, none of that.” She pulled me against her in a tight embrace. “I know it's hard, but we'll see this through.”

“I don't care anymore.” I mumbled against her chest.

“Yes, you do. Sure, you do. You're just tired and overwhelmed and you need some kind of outlet. You're going stir crazy in here. I know because I feel the same way.”

“How can you handle this so calmly?”

She chuckled the same dark laugh as a pony who had long ago accepted inevitability of fate and the futility of fighting against it.

“I've lived my entire life with the spectre of death hanging over me, ever since I was old enough to put two and two together. Living like that for more than a decade, I've gotten used to it. There are still times when I want to tear my mane out, but I have ways of dealing with the stress.”

I sniffled and looked up at her. “Like what?”

She grinned. “Sex or, failing that, masturbation.”

I pushed away from her so suddenly that I nearly fell out of my chair. “Be serious!”

“I am being serious. Remember when I said that banging did wonders for mellowing ponies out, that wasn't just talk. Besides, I also meditate.”

I had heard about meditation, an old Zebra method to achieve what they called enlightenment. “I've never done that before.”

She smiled. “I'll teach you. It's very easy, once you get the hang of it.”

We sat down between the two bunks, on the floor.

“I want you to close your eyes and relax. Breathe deep. In...” I heard the sudden hiss as she inhaled and did my best to follow her example.

“...and out. In...and out. Fill each breath with the dark feelings within you and the poison they bring. Your pain, your hatred, your anger, and your exhaustion. As you breathe out, send those dark feelings away. Send them far away from you. Let peace fill the void they have left and know that all will be well. The sun is warm and the grass is green and all will be well. Relax. Relax.

“You are no longer chained to this mortal shell. You may go where you please. Where will you go, Wind? What will you see?”

There was an actual physical sensation that overtook me, a feeling of weightlessness. I seemed to float within my own body.

I heard a voice. Soft and soothing, singing a lullaby that I instantly recognized, but hadn't heard since I was a foal. A small lamp cast soft light across the red walls of my bedroom as my mother stood over me, tucking me in while singing.

Lululoo, lululoo, my little star-sweeper. Fold up your wings. Close your eyes...

My mother, before the accident that took her voice, used to sing to me every night. She loved to sing and I loved to hear her voice.

In the doorway, a powerfully-built stallion lingered, watching us. He was home, such a rare occasion since duty kept him so far away for so long.

Daddy.

He watched with a contented smile as Mom finished the nightly ritual, positively glowing with happiness now that her family was complete once more. He then stepped forward as she moved aside and allowed him room.

His scent. Sweet Celestia, I remembered his scent. The smell of grass, and leaves, and wild things. He leaned in to give me a nuzzle and a promise of playtime tomorrow. I wrapped my tiny legs around his dappled neck, trying to work my hooves into his lavender mane. I didn't want him to go away anymore. He was my daddy and I wanted to keep him forever.

I could feel my throat tighten as the memory slipped back beneath the surface of my psychie. I wanted it for just a little longer. Everything felt so simple, so warm, so safe, and I wanted that feeling back. Mom losing her voice and losing Daddy had dragged me into the cold harshness of reality. I wanted this shelter to hide from Nimbus and her warring family.

The memory slipped from my grasp and I opened my eyes. I felt better. I felt like a great dark cloud had been lifted and the sun was shining on me. Nimbus had returned to her bed and blissful slumber. I turned to my clock, curious as to what time it was.

Three hours had passed since my little breakdown. Nimbus had done me the courtesy of cleaning up the mess I had made while I had been meditating.

I got up and climbed into my own bed. While I felt better, I was still bone tired and needed to rest before tomorrow. Hopefully, we'd be able to finish those toilets in time for class.

Chapter 12

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.”

Chapter 13

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.

Chapter 14

The school closed in the aftermath of the battle. It was a good move, since the clean-up would be somewhat distracting. Mom was understanding and took it easy on us. She let us know that she was there if we needed her and, then, left us alone. She knew we would come to her when we were ready.

Ty went home. He wanted to be with his family and they wanted to be with him. They showered him with love and affection, ecstatic that their only child had survived without any serious injuries.

Considering she didn't have a home to go back to, even if she wanted to, Nimbus stayed on the Compound with us. I couldn't blame her. Having a nearly deadly sibling rivalry that too little had been done about was not conducive to a healthy parent-child relationship.

On that note, her family was in a whole lot of hot water. The deaths of dozens of cadets was not something that could be ignored in the hopes that it would go away. Those cadets had families, and those families had lawyers. Not to mention, the crown had gotten involved and, when Celestia's own masters of litigation got involved, you didn't say “no”. Their savings were going to be depleted and everything they owned was going to be taken as compensation. Not only that, but they were all looking at lengthy prison sentences for a list of charges that was ever-growing.

A representative of the Princess had shown up at the door and presented Mom with a summons to court. Tornado, Nimbus, and I were going to be witnesses for the crown. He rattled off a list of charges that we were expected to speak on. I didn't understand most of them, but it was clear that all we would have to do is tell the truth about what happened.

Nimbus had spent the first few days after the attack alternating between anger and depression before simply going quiet. She acknowledged greetings and made half-hearted small talk, but nothing more than that. She didn't hide in her room, but wasn't her usual outgoing self.

She spent a lot of time with Tornado, usually just talking quietly. They would wander off someplace to be alone. Despite my nagging, he would not tell me what they had talked about.

If I wanted to know what was going on between Nimbus' ears, I needed to get her alone. Luckily, she had been a little more compliant since the attack.

I caught her milling about the training grounds and wrapped a wing around her shoulders. “Can I have a word?”

She offered only token resistance as I guided her back to the house and into my bedroom, where I knew we would have a little privacy.

Sitting across from her, I took in her general demeanor. Gone was the brash and bold pegasus that I had met earlier in the year. Before me sat a broken pony. Her back was bowed and her ears down as she looked everywhere but at me.

I was gentle on her. “How have you been?”

She shrugged, but offered no real answer.

“I noticed you've been talking with Tornado a lot. Anything bad about me?”

She let out a weak chuckle, but said nothing.

“Nimbus, how are you doing with all of this? Dealing with everything that happened?”

“I don't know. I never really figured it would go as far as it did. Even now, I just want to believe that Skyy fell in with a bad crowd. It all seems surreal. Ponies who were alive last week are in the ground today. They should be alive.” She said, her voice taking an edge.

Very good, Nimbus. I said to myself. Keep going.

“During the battle, I saw this one mare who had been killed. She had a crossbow for a cutie mark. She looked so familiar, but I didn't know her name. I had seen her before, even had a few classes with her. We worked together on a project one time, but I hadn't bothered to remember her name.”

She turned to me, her eyes pleading. “Did you know her name, Wind?”

I shook my head. “No. I don't think I ever met her.”

She let out a soft sob and laid down. “Nopony knew her name.”

“Now, don't say that. I'm sure somepony knew her.”

“Tornado didn't know her.”

“That's not fair.” I retorted. “My brother wouldn't know his plot from a hole in the ground.”

She snorted.

“Why are you blaming yourself for this?”

She shrugged again. “I dunno. Maybe because it was my fault?”

“So, you led the Lunars against the school?”

“No, but-”

“Then you planned the attack and provided them with intel?”

“Of course not, but-”

“Ah, then you came up with the idea in the first place?”

“No.”

I cocked my head. “Then I fail to see how this is your fault.”

“If I hadn't attended West Hoof... If I had left when I found out she was after me.”

“If you had gone to Duke Polaris, nopony would have known what to do in the event of an attack. You would have been killed when that hitpony came after you, or, if you had gotten away, many more innocent ponies would have died, including you. If you had left, not only would you have abandoned your family, a major faux-pas in this clan, ponies still would have died when the Lunars attacked and you would still feel guilty that you hadn't done anything when you could have helped. Either way, you'd be dead or in the same position you are right now. Have I missed anything?”

She shook her head and stood. “Why did I get to survive? I'm nopony, but a drunken, stupid, whorse.”

“No!” I barked, startling her. “Nimbus Gust, if those words pass through your muzzle one more time, you will take the rest of your meals through a straw. Am I clear?”

She nodded

“I don't need to tell you what you are. You know your worth. You are no less deserving of life because you happened to be related to Skyy. You did what you could to protect who you could and that is beyond commendable. There was no way you could have foreseen what would occur. Every reasonable plan we had to prevent something like this was implemented. Ponies with far more experience in these things than us had their minds on it and even they couldn't foresee what would happen. If they couldn't, how could you?”

“Because I knew what she was capable of.”

“And you shared that with us and we did everything reasonable to prevent what occurred. Don't you see, Nimbus? You did everything and anything you could to help.”

She hung her head. “Then why do I feel so guilty?”

I pulled her close into an embrace. “This is natural, part of the grieving process, but you have nothing to feel guilty about. You'll see it in time.”

x----x

A week after the battle, a memorial service was held on campus. The outer walls were lined with flowers, cards, and other small tokens of affection left by those who mourned. Canterlot was one of the safest cities in Equestria. The fact that a school had been attacked and that so many innocent lives had been lost was mind-boggling and touched everypony deeply.

The Equestrian flag hung at half staff, as it had been since the day after the attack and would be for some time yet. One day for every innocent life lost. Soaked with the frigid drizzle that fell, it seemed to reflect the collective mood of the ceremony as it hung limply.

A couple of Lunars showed up to try and convince everypony that the group that had attacked the school was nothing more than a splinter cell of extremists that was not affiliated in any way with the main body. However, ponies refused to listen. Cadets and Instructors alike began to protest their words. When the imbeciles still didn't leave, the crowd began to turn violent. Obscenities were hurled, along with stones and other debris, until the Guard had to intercede and escort the Lunars away.

Near where the infirmary stood, at the head of the crowd and behind a small stage, a wall had been constructed. Engraved on its bricks were the names and cutie marks of the ponies who had been killed. I wandered along it, looking for one in particular. Towards the end I had spotted it. A cutie mark of a crossbow and, next to it, a name.

SURE SHOT.

I reached up and touched the brick, hoping to feel some kind of connection to the mare that Nimbus couldn't remember the name of. What kind of pony was she? Was she disposed to joy or melancholy? Did she work hard or was she a party-obsessed slacker? What kind of family did she come from?

“Did you know her?”

Startled, I turned to find an older mare standing behind me. I thought for a moment, then shook my head. “No.”

She came forward and studied the brick. “There's something fundamentally wrong with a parent burying their child. She was supposed to bury me.”

I ducked my head in deference to Sure Shot's mother. “I'm sorry for your loss.”

“I thought she would be safe. What place could be safer than a military school?”

“The school did everything they could.”

She nodded. “I know. Logically, I know that. Emotionally, as a mother, I can see a thousand things they could have done better. At the same time, I want to believe she's not gone. I keep expecting her to come up beside me and make some kind of smart-flanked remark.”

I sat down. “Tell me about her...if you don't mind.”

With a sad smile, she began. “She was always such a sweet girl, so smart. She could remember everything and I mean everything. And she was always so curious. I remember, when she was still very young, she asked me what I had meant when I mentioned, to a friend, that her daddy put his flesh rocket in my hot pocket.”

A blush to rival hers rose in my cheeks and I couldn't help but giggle.

“The day she gained her cutie mark, her daddy had been showing her how to use his crossbow. He always said he perferred to teach her about it, rather than let her find it on her own and there be an accident. Of course, I was completely against it.

“I came back from the market to find her and him in the backyard with a target set up. A thousand scenarios, each worse than the last, ran through my mind. Well, I immediately ran out there to stop them. When I yelled his name, she started and the weapon fired. She wasn't even aiming, but she struck a bull's-eye.” She returned her attention to the brick and pressed her forehead to it. “And now, she's gone.”

I shook my head. “No, she isn't.”

She turned to me with a strange look.

“You remembered her, and, since you've told me about her, I know her now. So long as you keep doing that, she'll keep living.”

She nodded sadly before turning back to the wall and placing a gentle kiss to the brick engraved with her daughter's name. “Good-bye, baby. Momma loves you so much.”

I left her to her privacy and returned to the crowd. Nimbus sat with my brother, mother and Typhoon. Gently, I pulled her aside and looked straight into her eyes.

“Her name was Sure Shot. She had a mother who absolutely adored her and a father who wanted to show her the world. She was smart and hard-working and was embarassingly curious.”

She gave me a curious look before her eyes softened. For the first time in days, she genuinely smiled. “Thank you.”

Epilogue: The Pony Who Gave Her All

Epilogue: The Pony Who Gave Her All

I looked through the list again, to make certain that I had not forgotten anything. Everything on the list had the initial of who would receive it. Everything on the list used to belong to Nimbus.

This was really Tornado's work, but, seeing as my brother was incapacitated at the moment, I had to step in and distribute what was left of his late wife's possessions.

Nimbus and Tor had a falling out shortly after Cloud's unceremonious, unexpected, and unofficial discharge from the service. They agreed that some time apart would benefit the both of them. She had taken their youngest, Alula, and moved to Ponyville and he had stayed on the Compound to tend to his duties as Paterfamilias.

Years passed and it didn't look like my brother and my friend would get back together. Of course, I couldn't blame him. Nimbus wasn't the mare he had fallen in love with. She was darker, harsher, and never expressed how she truly felt. Some days, I hardly recognized her.

Still, every once in a while, I would catch a flash of the old Nimbus Gust. The one who would sneak off of campus to drink away the night and chase both stallions and mares in the name of having a good time. For the briefest of moments, Nim would be back.

I looked up towards the wall and saw the family portrait that had been taken a year before. My attention was drawn to her, standing to my immediate left and holding Alula in a foreleg. In her eyes was that same spark I had only seen occasionally since West Hoof. A look of contentment tempered with age and wisdom and here, holding her daughter, was a genuine smile, not the polite front she often presented.

I set the list down and sighed heavily, reaching up with a hoof to rub at my eyes. This was all too much. What had been a simple search and rescue had turned recovery when we were alerted that Cloud had found Nimbus. The most obvious wound, the opened throat, had been the one that had caused her death. However, there were other wounds, marks that had been expertly placed to cause as much pain as possible.

Before her death, Nimbus had been tortured.

I felt myself tense with anger as I imagined her last days. Terrified, alone, and in pain. How long had that lasted? According to what little information I had received, whatever killed her had expertly disguised itself as her and carried out her life for some time.

I remembered reading the coroner's report. The time of death had been placed around three hours before we found her. Had we just been a little faster, Nimbus would still be alive. She would be recovering in a hospital instead of resting in the ground.

“Mom? You okay?”

I looked up to see my daughter staring at me. Star was stretched out on the floor, with one of her textbooks open before her, doing a bit of last-minute studying before returning to school. She watched me with concern, unnerved by my unusual attitude.

My Star. My baby. And she was almost grown up. She had discovered her talent for tracking spells at an early age, mostly because she was born to stick her nose where it didn't belong. It must have come from her father.

I gave her a brittle smile. “Yeah, I'm fine.” I got up from the sofa and fetched my coat from the hook by the door. “I'm going to go out for a while, get some fresh air.”

Star closed her book and began to get up, “I'll come with you.”

Since we had buried Nimbus, Star had become a little clingy. If she couldn't be there herself, she planted one of her enchanted tracking gems. It wasn't unusual for her to plant the gems on ponies, but she had really stepped up her efforts.

“No, no. I'll just be gone for a little while. You stay and keep studying.”

Not one to listen, she got up anyways and came to me. Much to my surprise, she didn't refute my advice but embraced me tightly and I could feel her slip one of those jewels into my mane. I pretended not to notice. Hopefully, this was just a phase and she would move on when she was done grieving.

I pulled her close and gently kissed her brow. “I love you, Star. I know I don't say that enough.”

“Love you, too, Mom.”

We broke apart and I opened the door. “If your father asks where I've gone, tell him I needed to clear my head.”

x----x

It had been a long time since I had visited this part of town. The area began to look a little neglected as its usual patronage began to have families and careers that required more and more of their attention and found that partying the night away no longer held the appeal it once did.

She needed to be told. I knew it would devastate her, but, if she heard it from anypony other than me, I would never be forgiven.

The bar was closed, but the lights were still on and I could see her inside, cleaning up. A bell tinkled to announce my entrance.

She paused in her sweeping. “We're closed.”

“Even for old friends?” I teased.

She set her broom aside and slowly turned to face me. She had aged well. Even though she was well past the age of retirement, she looked as lovely as any young mare. If anything, age had only served to enhance her beauty.

With a happy cry, she trotted over and wrapped me in a tight embrace. “Windy!”

“Hey, Tips.”

“Don't you 'Hey Tips' me, Wind. Where have you been? I ain't seen ya in Celestia-knows how long.”

“Well, I've been busy.”

She sat back. “Too busy to come here and buy me a drink? Horseapples. What keeps ya too busy?”

I took a seat at the bar. “I'm Chief Counselor for the Royal Guard now.”

“That a fact? Knew you'd be top dog one of these days. Said to myself years ago, said 'Tipsy, that pony is goin' places' and now look at ya. Lemme guess, Nim's 'too busy' to pop in and say hi.”

I looked down for a second, steeling my resolve. “Tipsy, you might want to sit down for this.”

Her ears fell back. “Oh no. Did she get hurt? How bad is it?”

I covered my mouth with a hoof and took a few steadying breaths. I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to break this mare's heart, but she needed to hear it from me, not read it in some cold newspaper obituary.

“I'm sorry, Tipsy. She's gone.”

She wavered on her hooves and, for a moment, I was afraid she'd faint. But she shook her head and reached across the bar, taking both of my hooves in hers. “Tell me she went quick, Windy. Please tell me she didn't suffer.”

I didn't make a habit of lying, but one little lie didn't hurt. “She didn't suffer.”

The barmare lowered her head and breathed a sigh of relief. “At least there's that.” She returned her gaze to me. “How're you doin'?”

“I'm fine.” Came the immediate reply.

She shook her head, not buying it for a minute. “Don't ya lie to me, Wind Kicker. You're hurtin'. Ya don't work thirty years in the booze business without learnin' when a pony's hurtin'.” She came around the bar and seized me in another tight embrace. “Go ahead. Ain't nopony here, but us. I'll be strong for ya.”

Celestia, I needed this. I had to be strong for everypony else. The unshakeable Wind Kicker who took everypony else's problems with a straight face and a kind ear. But I was no superpony. Sometimes, even I needed to let go.

I tucked my head against her neck and felt the first of many tears leave my eyes.

“Atta girl.”

I missed my friend. She had gone through so much, suffered so terribly. I hoped that she would find happiness again one day, but she seemed to fight against it. She never recovered from what her sister had done to her.

I don't know how long we stayed like that, with me crying into her neck and she into my mane. Finally, we broke apart.

“She wouldn't want us boo-hooin' over her like this.” Tipsy declared as she got up and went back behind the bar, pulling out two tumblers and several bottles. Before I could say anything, she took the bottles in her magic and began to pour. It was an intricate dance that I soon lost track of as I recognized the drink she was making.

Rainbow's Revenge.

Nimbus' favorite.

Tipsy set the bottles aside and pushed one of the glasses towards me. We held them aloft and gently clinked the rims.

“To Nimbus Gust, the biggest feathering pain-in-the-plot to ever set hoof in my bar. May she rest in peace.”

“She's earned it.” I agreed.

Before I even took a sip, the bell rang and a timid voice called out. “Mom?”

I turned to see Star standing in the threshold of the bar.

“Whoa, kid. I don't know what kinda stories your daddy's been tellin' ya, but I ain't got kids.”

“She's talking to me, Tips.” I leveled a gaze at my daughter. “What are you doing here?”

She scuffed a hoof. “You were gone for a really long time.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. “It's barely been an hour.”

She looked spooked. “I was worried.”

I patted the stool next to me and she hopped up.

“Star, this is an old friend of mine. Tips, this is my youngest.”

Star waved a hoof in greeting. “Hi.”

Tipsy smiled. “How ya doin', sweetheart?” She turned to me. “She's beautiful, Wind. Looks just like that colt I saw ya runnin' around with. What was his name?”

“Typhoon Season. He's her daddy. Her sister, Storm, is in the Long Patrol.”

“That right?” Tips asked as she poured a cider and set it in front of Star. “You need to bring her in here. All of my friends' lives are passin' by and I'll be damned if don't get to be a part of it.” She turned to Star. “Sweetheart, you're more than welcome to come in here any time you want. We'll gossip about the hottest mares and your Mom. I could tell ya some stories.”

“So long as it doesn't interfere with your schoolwork.” I added. “No daughter of mine is going to become some barfly.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”

“Just the one. Then, we're going home.”

She nodded and took a sip of her cider.

Tipsy's eyes glazed over. “Yeah, I could tell ya some stories. Like the time I met your Mom and Dad. Your Aunt Nimbus had been comin' in here for years and-”

Author's Note

Well...That was...not as much fun as I anticipated. To be frank, the pressure of keeping up with Winningverse canon and making everything for a group of seriously underdeveloped characters was beginning to get to me. It was nearly to the point where I wanted to quit the project altogether.

But, obviously, I did not.

Still, I'm glad that this is over and I don't think I'll be dancing the keys in the Winningverse again. At least, not for the foreseeable future.

Thank you, Chengar Qordath, for letting me play in your sandbox and for giving me all of that great advice. It's been an honor.

Comma-Kazie, if you see this, thanks for, at least, trying to make sense of my mess. Even though it didn't work out, it's the thought that counts.

Thanks to all of you who favorited and commented. Even though some comments were less-than-glowing, they were always honest and constructive. I can appreciate that any day of the week.

Now, self-promotion time: If you liked this...you should look into some of my other works. Just follow the clicky-links back to my page and take your pick.

Again, thanks for the fun. Even though it got rocky towards the end, it was a great ride.

Chapter 1

This was one of the few times I could study without interference. My usually loud and rambunctious bunk mate, who had the habit of wandering in at zero-dark-thirty, was absent tonight, probably having sneaked off of campus to one of the many clubs around Canterlot. Thank Celestia, I could use the time to catch up on my assignments.

It was a long standing tradition for Kickers to seek their higher learning at West Hoof and I am no exception. Especially so after my parents found out about my special talent. To be honest, I had almost always defaulted to the role of moderator in disputes between friends and family members so a career in psychology was a natural progression not to mention the fact that the Royal Guard always had need for well-trained and dedicated psychologists to evaluate and monitor the unfortunate Guardsponies who came back from what few conflicts there were with a bit of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As such, I was fairly confident in my career security.

Provided, of course, I could pass my classes.

It wasn't that I was failing. In fact, my marks were quite good despite the heavy course load. Unfortunately, because of my aforementioned bunk mate, I had fallen behind and was now flailing to catch up.

Speaking of the Nightmare, drunken singing coming down the hall, supplemented by the occasional thump against a wall, announced my bunk mate’s return. The doorknob rattled and a bout of quiet swearing occurred before the door was flung open and the pegasus stumbled through.

“Heeeyy! 'Sup Windy,” she crowed as she wandered in, kicking the door shut behind her.

I checked the alarm clock on my desk. “You're back early.”

The stench of alcohol emanating from the mare was so strong that I felt myself become a little lightheaded. She paused for a moment, having some trouble remembering which bed was hers. I couldn't see what the trouble was. My side of the room was very neat and orderly. Everything was in its proper place, the bed was always made, the desk was always tidy, and the floor was always swept. Her side was a wreck and often looked like her wardrobe had vomited onto her bed. Books were carelessly tossed about and things were scattered to the four winds. The entire scene served as a physical display of our contrasting natures.

She finally decided which was her bed and climbed up. I expected her to immediately put head to pillow and pass out but she still seemed to have some of her mental facilities intact. She slowly turned and lay down facing me.

“Watchadoin'?”

I took up my quill again. “Studying. That's where you open the book and read the information inside.”

She snorted. “Don need ta studee. I already know everthin'.”

It was true. Despite the fact that she never studied, never completed an assignment, and was rarely awake through a lecture, she always managed to pull in marks that were equal to, and often better than, my own. It was something I simply didn't understand.

“Hey, Windy, you know what we should do?”

“What's that,” I asked, not really listening.

“We should go out.”

My quill fell from my slack jaw. Had she just said what I thought she said? “Excuse me?”

“Y'know, go out, meet some stallions, get bucked up, maybe get some. With me as your wingmare, you could get any stallion in the city. Or mare, if that's what you're in to. Trust me, some banging would do wonders towards chilling you out. Not to mention, you're not a bad-looking mare. You need to lose about five pounds but, once you do, you'll look only slightly worse than me.”

My jaw fell slack for the second time in as many minutes, “Did you just call me fat?”

“No, not fat. It's just the freshmare fifteen. You know how it is.”

I was surprised my jaw hadn't broken when it hit the floor, “What the buck, Nimbus? Where do you get off calling me fat?”

“No, no, I swear to Celestia!”

I hopped down from my chair and went over to the bed, retrieving the pillow. Armed with the fluffy weapon, I proceeded to beat the infuriating mare into submission. Nimbus squealed and kicked, trying to escape or at least defend herself. Finally, she rolled off of the bed and onto the floor, the impact shaking the entire room.

“What in the name of Luna is going on in here!”

The voice cut like a blade and I immediately got off of Nimbus, dropped the pillow, kicked it under the bed and hoped that she didn't notice as I snapped to attention. Beside me, Nimbus did much the same.

“Instructor Line, ma'am, this cadet was repaying an insult from Cadet Gust through Juris Ungula!”

Hard Line cocked her head. “And what was the nature of the insult, Cadet Kicker?”

“Ma'am, she called me fat, ma'am!”

Line actually smiled, which was almost unheard of for the mare, “However grave the insult, Cadet, Juris Ungula was outlawed five hundred years ago. I will not have illicit activities of any sort occurring under my watch. Is that clear?”

“Ma'am, yes ma'am.” I snapped off a salute.

“And Cadet Gust...” Her muzzle wrinkled, “...have you been drinking?”

“Ma'am, no ma'am.” Nimbus' salute was slightly sloppier.

“Why do I smell alcohol?”

“That would be my new acne treatment, ma'am.” I responded promptly.

“You don't have acne, Cadet Kicker.”

“Ma'am, no ma'am. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, ma'am.”

There was a physical sensation to the disbelief in Hard Line's stare. “Rack up,” she commanded. “Lights out!”

“Ma'am, yes ma'am!” We chorused. I retrieved the pillow and we climbed into our beds.

“Cadet Gust, I expect this room to be spotless before First Inspection tomorrow or you will have Latrine Duty until I say otherwise.”

“Ma'am, yes ma'am.”

“Good night, cadets,” Hard Line called as she shut off the lights.

“Good night, ma'am.”

As soon as the door had shut and Line's hoof beats faded away, Nimbus said to me. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

“That was the last time.”

“I hear you. We don't have class tomorrow, right?”

“No. No classes.”

“Then, after I clean up, I'm going to take you out. My treat, whaddaya say?”

“I was wanting to get some work done.”

Nimbus snorted. “Buck that!”

I sighed and settled a little deeper into my covers. “Why not? I need a break.”

“Awesome. I know this great bar we can go to, lotsa stallions and mares. Sooooo… much... eye... candeeee!”

That was the great thing about West Hoof. Saturdays and Sundays were free days for students to tend to assignments, work out, or just unwind and they usually came with implied leave privileges. Short of really bucking up, cadets could do what they pleased on the weekends. Generally, it was a good idea. It allowed the cadets to blow off steam and kept them out of trouble with the implied threat of losing those precious leave privileges. Therefore, I knew we could leave campus without fear of incurring the wrath of the Instructors.

Ponies assumed that, because West Hoof was a military academy, it was a strict, regimen-driven environment. It was surprisingly loose and cadets were left to their own devices for the most part. Of course, there were lectures that had to be attended and exercises to be completed. West Hoof was a military school, after all. The cadets were training for careers with the Guard but the Instructors had enough world-wisdom to realize that the cadets were little more than teenagers, still with their natural rebellious streak firmly ingrained, and let them have the freedom to do as they pleased within reason, of course.

I rolled over and tucked the blankets beneath my chin as I shut my eyes.

“Hey, Wind?”

“Yeah?”

“You're alright. I don't care what the other cadets say, you're awesome in my book.”

“What do the other cadets say, Nimbus?”

“'Night,” she replied before going silent.

“Nim, seriously, what do the other cadets say?”

x----x

It wasn't a surprise to see what Nimbus could do when she set her mind to the task. With only a bit of prodding from me, she had her half of the room clean and ready for inspection in record time and Instructor Line was more than happy to grant us leave of campus to go out into the city, provided we were back in time for curfew and final inspection.

Despite the fact that we were out of uniform, our mane styles proclaimed our origins and some of the ponies we passed by gave us a wide berth. West Hoof cadets had a reputation for being rambunctious when granted weekend leave and none lived up to this reputation better than Nimbus Gust. It was hard to believe that she, of all ponies, would choose West Hoof for her higher learning. I brought this up to her.

“I didn't.” She explained. “That was Dad. My first choice was Duke Polaris but he wanted his daughter to make something of herself and he thought the Guard would be the perfect opportunity for me to straighten up and fly right.”

It made sense that she would want to attend Polaris, it was a known party school and, while it turned out the occasional gems, it was still a party school and little was thought of those who graduated from there. “Good thing he sent you here, eh?”

“By hook or by crook,” Nimbus responded with little enthusiasm.

“You don't agree?”

“I'm not Guardpony material. I mean, hay you've seen me! I'm too much of a free spirit to spend my time taking orders from screaming commanders and, Sweet Celestia, can you imagine what I would be like in a commanding role?”

“Given what you normally act like, that would be something terrible.”

“Exactly! I'm not a Guardspony and I never will be and here we are.”

The sign over the door of the building we stopped at read The Moondancer. I knew of this place. “A fillyfooler bar?”

“You got anything against fillyfoolers?”

It was the ultimate uncomfortable question. “No, but I thought we were going to find some stallions? Besides, you never struck me as a fillyfooler.”

“Nimbus Gust does not deny herself to anypony, regardless of sex,” she said with an arrogant smirk.

I rolled my eyes. “You really are something, Nimbus.”

She snorted and pushed the door open. Despite the early hour, the bar was still open. Actually, I had heard this bar never really closed. A local band played loud music as several mares danced. In one corner, I could see a couple, both mares, wildly groping each other while engaged, with an obscene degree of gusto, in trying to eat each others heads. Nimbus led me to the bar, where most of the stools were occupied.

“Hey!” She called out.

Several mares turned to look. “Nimby,” they chorused.

She exchanged high-hoofs with them as she strutted to a pair of open stools while I followed quietly in her wake, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. I had been honest when I had told Nimbus I had nothing against fillyfoolers but that didn't mean they didn't make me uncomfortable. To be honest, any attention I received tended to make me uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, my efforts were in vain.

“Nimby, who's this curvy little shadow of yours?”

“Fillies, meet Windy. She's my main mare up at West Hoof.”

A unicorn with a white coat and lavender mane pouted. “I thought I was your main mare.”

“Aww, is Velvet's feewings hurt,” Nimbus mocked. “Don't worry, I still wuv 'oo.”

A beautiful unicorn mare rested her fore-knees against the bar. “Waddleya have, Nim?”

“The usual, Tipsy.”

“One Rainbow's Revenge, comin' up. And your friend?”

I hesitated. I had never really been in a bar of any sort, mostly because I had never really been a drinker. However, social customs dictate... “I'll have whatever she's having.”

“You sure about that? Revenge isn't for first-timers,” Nimbus warned.

“I'm hardly a first-timer.” I replied.

“And a Rainbow's Revenge for the cutie.” Tipsy, noticing my blush, gave me a wink.

I felt a foreleg snake behind my neck, “So, sweetheart, ya gotta name?”

I turned to the pink-maned mare next to me. “Wind Kicker.”

“Well Wind, what do you say you and I get a little better acquainted-”

Nimbus leaned past me to address the mare. “Hooves off, Redheart. She's not interested.”

“I think Wind is a big filly and can speak for herself.” Redheart shot back.

I gave the mare a kind smile. “I'm afraid she's right, er 'Redheart' was it? I'm not that kind of filly.”

“Oh, you say that now, but just wait.” She began to stroke my chest with a hoof. “I'm sure it's just because you haven't experienced what a mare can do.”

“I'm warning you, Red,” Nimbus growled.

“Buck off, Nim.”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!” Tipsy had returned with our drinks, “Mind your manners, Red, or I'll put ya out.”

“But, Tips-”

“'But, Tips' nothin'. I let ya get away with a lot of horseapples around here but I won't have ya makin' anypony uncomfortable in my bar.”

“I don't hear her complaining.”

“That's because she's too polite to tell ya off.” Tipsy set our drinks down.

Redheart snorted but let go of me. “Nag,” she muttered.

“That's it!” Tipsy shoved Redheart off of her bar stool. “Ya've had enough, Red. Kick rocks and don't come back until you're sober and can remember your manners. I know your mother taught ya better than to be a pain in the plot.”

Redheart muttered a few more obscene comments before gathering the tattered remains of her pride and strutting for the door with her nose in the air. “Dunno what I was thinking, hanging out in a dive bar like this.”

“Keep running that mouth of yours, Red, and see if I let ya into this 'dive bar' again.”

The door slammed shut behind the mare and Tipsy let out a sigh. “Don't mind Red,” she said to me, her ears folding back as she gave an embarrassed smile. “Normally, she's not nearly that bad. Things have been rough for her.”

“What's got her tail in a knot,” Nimbus asked, taking a sip from her drink.

“Med school's getting pricey and her mom's in a really bad way. She's convinced herself that she has to choose between her future and her family.” Tipsy explained, moving to a sink at the other side of the bar to wash a few glasses. “But that's no excuse for how she acted and, like I said I don't want anypony feeling uncomfortable in my bar. Lemme make it up to ya.”

“That's not necessary.” I assured her.

“All the same, I feel bad about Red pickin' on ya. Drinks are on the house.”

“Yay,” Nimbus cheered.

“Not for you, Nim. I have a feelin', if I started givin' ya free drinks, ya'd put me in the poorhouse.”

Nimbus shrugged. “At least I don't have to pay for the booze she'll pour down her throat. My coin purse thanks you.”

I studied my untouched drink. The Rainbow's Revenge was appropriately named. Different liquors had been expertly layered to appear to be a literal glass of rainbow, but the colors were wrong. The only way I could describe it would be that the colors were the exact negative of the actual colors of the spectrum and varied from a oily black to a sickening yellow. I was getting nauseous just looking at it.

“Better drink up,” Nimbus advised. “If you let the layers mix, they can be poisonous.”

“You're serving poisonous cocktails here,” I asked Tipsy.

The barmare smiled, “That's just Nim bein' Nim. Though, she's half right. The taste is pretty awful if the layers mix.”

I don't know what possessed me. Normally, if I drink, I'm a very careful drinker, slowly sipping mine while eating a lot. However, this time, I simply opened my mouth and poured the concoction in.

For a moment, I felt nothing. A shiver shot up and down my spine several times and I could feel a slow warmth spreading outwards from my stomach. That warmth quickly became a burning sensation as my vision seemed to twist and warp.

Nimbus grinned at me. “I told you so.”

My world began to tilt crazily. I could hear Tipsy but she sounded far off.

“And down she goes.”

I fell backwards off of my stool, hit the ground, and blacked out.

Chapter 3

Nimbus didn't say much the rest of the night and I didn't press her. Obviously, her encounter with the stallion had shaken her normally cool demeanor to the core. When we returned to our bunks, she did nothing but glare at the wall and huff occasionally. I wanted to help her. Despite how much she confused and irritated me, I had actually come to care about her but I knew that she wasn't going to tell me anything, regardless of how much I needled her.

However, her silence was beginning to worry me. I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes and I knew a hot-tempered pegasus like her was undoubtedly planning revenge for the humiliation she had suffered today.

“You okay,” I asked for what must have been the fifty-thousandth time.

“Fine,” she deadpanned.

I flinched. This wasn't good. Her face was expressionless and her eyes were flat without the usual spark of humor tainted with mischief. She wasn't with me, only responding on reflex. One of the things I was known for, aside from being able to keep a logical mind in the midst of a crisis, was my ability to read a pony.

It was obvious that she had known the stallion. They had a history together. I could discern that much from what little I had seen of their interaction and what I knew of Nimbus. When she was confronted with an aggressive pony of either sex, her first reaction was to toy with them. Then, she would outright reject them by finding another pony, almost at random, and cuddling with them. If that didn't work, she would become aggressive herself, invading the other pony's personal space while speaking in low tones, much like she had with Ty. If that failed, she would resort to what she called “love taps” which were anything but. I had seen ponies bruised and bloodied by her tactics.

Her reaction to this mysterious stallion was to immediately try to escape. No flirting, no random cuddling, no aggressive space invasion, just escape. When that had failed, she had turned violent, not love taps, just downright violent. She had tried to kill him and would have succeeded if he had not rolled away. But that left me to wonder.

What would have happened if Tor, Ty, and I hadn't been there to help? Would Nimbus be cooling her hooves in a jail cell or on a slab?

I sighed and got up from my desk. Trying to study, now of all times, was an exercise in futility. Nimbus and her role in the events of the day had me far too distracted to concentrate on the words and numbers in my textbooks.

I stretched, popping my legs and back, and climbed up onto my bunk. “You want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Nim, this has me really worried. I've never seen you like this before. I wanna help you.”

“Don't need your help.”

“I think you do. What would have happened if we hadn't gotten there when we did?”

“I would have kicked his flank, that's what.”

“Yeah, and you'd have been arrested and kicked out of school or he would have kicked your flank and you would be in the infirmary or dead. Tell me who he was.”

“Nopony.”

“Nopony horseapples,” I retorted. “Who was he? Do you owe him money?”

“No.”

“Then what? He couldn't just be some random stallion...” I gasped as all of the pieces clicked into place. Of course, why hadn't I realized it sooner? It fit perfectly with what I knew of Nimbus Gust. “He was a lover, wasn't he?”

“Buck off.”

“See, that right there. That confirms it. He was a lover. You left him and he wants back in.”

“Shaddup.”

“Nim, tell me his name. I can let one of the Instructors know and they won't let him onto campus. We can protect you.”

“Don't need protection.”

“Horseapples, you don't need protection. I saw what went on over there today. If we hadn't gotten there when we did...Celestia, I don't even want to think about it.”

She left her bed, crossed the room to the door, and flipped off the lights before climbing back into bed.

“You can hide from me all you want, Nimbus Gust, but I'm always going to be right here, ready to help you.”

Only silence responded to my words. She was ignoring me. That was fine, I could take being ignored but I wouldn't leave her alone until we got to the bottom of this. The art of tenacity was something we Kickers learned at an early age.

“Why?”

The sigh from across the room was so faint that I wasn't sure I had hear her. “What was that?”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Why should you even care? I'm nopony but a drunken whorse who can't keep her tail down.”

“Now, that's not true!” I sounded a little harsher than I had intended. “There's lots of good qualities about you. You're smart and you work hard when you put your mind to it. You accept everypony for who they are, whether or not you agree with them. Everypony loves you and your personality. Why else would they be willing to put up with your horseapples? Besides, I'm your friend and I want to help you.”

There was a rustle of covers as she rolled over. Through the moonlight coming through the window, I could see the shocked expression on her face. “What?”

“I...am...your...friend,” I said slowly, over-enunciating each word. “And I will always be here, right here, ready to help you whenever you need me. Even if you don't realize you need me.”

Her mouth worked, soundlessly flapping in shock, and a single tear leaked from her eye to trickle down her muzzle. I had broken through her armor to the soft core of the mare within.

I smiled at her. “Good night.”

x----x

With the new week came more lectures and exercises. After our little heart-to-heart, I had resumed my studying while Nimbus lounged about. Neither of us really had the motivation nor the money to head back to The Moondancer and I could tell she was still wary of the stallion so we really just did nothing.

The only exciting thing occurred when my brother and Typhoon dropped by to visit. Somehow or another and much to my displeasure, the boys had managed to get their hooves on a case of hard cider and had sneaked it onto campus in their saddlebags. For reasons only Celestia knows, they came straight to our dorm, knowing full well what would happen if they were caught or if I wasn't in the mood to entertain them.

With company by and drinks distributed, Nimbus was nearly back to herself. She was laughing, joking, and flirting with the boys as if she hadn't a care in the world. However, every now and again, I would catch her glancing, nervously, at the door or peering out the window when she thought nopony was watching.

I noticed how she particularly enjoyed Tor's affections. She would flirt and play with him before suddenly switching over to Ty, cuddling and nuzzling him. Eventually, Typhoon decided to play along and would cover her with a protective wing whenever she clung to his side. This harmless teasing would drive Tor to bribe her back with another cider.

Typhoon, despite his rather stoic nature, seemed to be enjoying Nim's attentions as well but I noticed he seemed slightly distracted. Every time I looked his way, I would catch him staring at me. He, in turn, would blush and suddenly find the floor, or the wall, or the ceiling very interesting.

Apparently, Typhoon Season had a crush on me. Wasn't I little miss popularity?

The party had lasted well through the day and into the night with all of us becoming more influenced then we should have. Eventually, well-sauced, I had passed out but not before Nimbus and Tor, who were cuddled up on her bed. My last memory of the night was of something warm pressing against my back as Typhoon fell asleep next to me.

When I woke up, both of the boys were long gone.

I stayed with Nimbus as we moved among the buildings of West Hoof. We didn't have any classes together but I would meet her outside of the buildings her classes were held in and escort her to the next one. While she tried to pass it off like she had worked her way through the events of the weekend, she was still uneasy, constantly looking over her shoulder and watching for any stalkers. Any time she would see a white-coated stallion of any sort, she would instantly move closer to me. When I checked, however, it would turn out to be a false alarm.

That was the case, until I felt her move beside me again.

I let out an exasperated sigh. It was a bit ridiculous for a brash and bold mare like Nimbus Gust to suddenly become a timid filly. I finally looked to where her gaze was locked.

There he was, standing bold as new-polished bronze and watching us. I had no idea how he managed to sneak onto campus. I acted immediately, moving around her to cover her from the other side.

“Let's go this way,” I whispered to her, nudging her in a random direction. She complied without fussing and followed me. I herded her up a walkway with no idea where I was going. Behind us, we could hear him following. We turned randomly, trying to find a way back towards the campus common where other cadets would be and where he wouldn't dare attack us.

I heard the bell, signaling the beginning of lectures. My ears folded back against my head. We were screwed. Playing cat and mouse with this pervert was getting us nowhere. I stopped and turned, moving to stand between him and Nimbus. I widened my stance and spread my wings defensively.

“Buck off! We're not afraid of you!”

He grinned. “You can't protect her.”

Nimbus let out a low whine and began to tremble.

“Leave her alone! Leave us alone! Get out of here!” I stomped my hoof, threateningly.

His grinned widened.

He wasn't going to leave and was certain he had the upper hoof. I lowered my stance and spoke from the side of my mouth. “Nimbus, Run!”

“I'm not leaving you.”

“We need help. Go and get somepony, anypony. I'll hold him off.”

I don't know who moved first. I heard Nimbus begin to slowly retreat, torn between my orders and helping me with her stalker. He charged forward and I moved to intercept. He was much larger than me but I had been trained to take down larger opponents. I lowered my head, intending to duck under him.

A moment before impact, he shifted, turning his head and presenting his shoulder. I slammed into the dense bone and saw stars. I was lifted onto his back and practically rode him as he charged towards a brick wall. He stopped suddenly and my momentum carried me off of his back and into the building.

My ears rang and my vision darkened at the edges but I struggled to my hooves. A heavy hoof pressed against my throat and pushed me back to the ground. The pressure increased until I couldn't breathe. Struggling against his weight, I kicked my hooves and managed to wrap a foreleg around the hoof he had against my throat but I couldn't get the leverage to push it away.

As the darkness closed in, a single thought broke through.

Was this what it was like to die?

x----x

My head was throbbing and my ears were ringing as I came to. My eyes swept the area, searching for any sign of the stallion or Nim. I pushed myself up and shook my head. That was a mistake. The whole world swung crazily and my stomach churned.

My hearing slowly returned and I heard the sounds of scuffling. I turned and saw that the stallion had Nimbus pinned to the ground. Already, I could see bruises and cuts marring her face and head. She struggled for all she was worth but I could see she was weakening under the abuse. It took her longer to react and compensate for his movements and blows. Her eyes were unfocused and her movements were sluggish. He forced her to turn her head and used a large hoof to pin it to the ground He raised and angled his other forehoof, preparing to deliver a lethal blow to her throat.

I was a mare possessed. I broke into a charge, beating my wings to help me build speed. This had to be timed perfectly. If I did this too early, I would miss my mark and not have the same effects that I wanted. If I was too late, I would hit Nimbus. I shut by brain off and trusted my instincts to do the right thing.

At the last moment, I planted a forehoof and pivoted. This killed most of my momentum but I still had enough. I cocked my hind legs and bucked with everything I had.

He was taken by surprise and was catapulted off of her but landed with grace and skill, rolling back to his hooves and turning to face me.

“Stupid nag,” he spat. “You shouldn't have gotten involved. You shouldn't have gotten back up. I was going to spare you but you got in the way. Now, I'll have to kill you, too.”

I was stunned by what I had seen. My memory recalled a lecture from my first year. We were given a demonstration of tactics used by Mercenary ponies in assassinations. These ponies often favored unarmed combat because there would be less evidence to worry about. Their strikes were swift and precise, allowing them to easily eliminate a target before the target, or the target's security, had a chance to react.

I had no idea what was going on but one thing was for certain. This was no lover's quarrel. I was dealing with a trained killer-for-hire. No matter, I was a Kicker. Our combat training began as soon as we could walk and not a day went by which didn't find me in the gym, sparring with one clanspony or another. I changed tactics. He was bigger than me and, from what I had seen of his style, relied on his size and strength to overpower his foes.

That worked just fine for me. The bigger they were, the harder they fell.

With a powerful downthrust, I launched myself into the air, pointed my hind legs, folded my wings, and plummeted back down. This was a tactic I had used before and it would end one of three ways. I was a breath from striking when he dropped down and rolled to his right. I spread my legs and allowed the dense bone and powerful muscle to absorb the force of my impact. Before he was on his hooves, I landed a dozen painful jabs into his ribs. They were not of the brute force he was capable of and usually experienced but they weren't designed to be. My pointed hooves concentrated the force of the blow to a single small point, which must have felt like a beating with a hammer to him.

He bucked and struck me in the chest, knocking the breath from my lungs. This was a tactic Tor liked to use and I had long ago learned to compensate. As my back hit the ground, I curled up and, at the right moment, flexed my wings, launching myself back to my hooves.

If this sudden change in fighting style surprised him, he didn't show it. I made to charge like I had before but I kept feinting, moving erratically to make it impossible for him to predict which direction I was coming from. Finally, I did something he didn't expect.

I went up.

Using my wings to hold me aloft, I kicked at him in the same manner as the fore leg jabs but with a little more force behind them He managed to block most of the blows, most of them, but a few landed. One smashed his muzzle, one fractured an eye socket, and one struck him square on the sinus cavity.

Celestia, how I love being a pegasus.

I twisted my body and rolled in the air, coming down on his back. My fore legs wrapped around his neck and my hind legs went around his flank.

“Surprise, Boo boo,” I snarled.

He took off, intending to dislodge me as he had before, but I was ready this time. At the last possible moment, I backflipped off of him and planted both of my hind hooves square into his plot, launching him, yet again, into the wall.

The impact made a sickening crunch and, as he slid down, leaving a wet trail of blood behind him, I could see some of the brick had been broken. I really hoped they wouldn't charge me for repairs.

Suddenly, I remembered why I had been fighting in the first place.

Nimbus was shaking uncontrollably as I pulled her into a sitting position and held her against me. I was worried, with the blows she had received, that there might be some brain damage. Slowly, she seemed to relax as she turned her head and began to cry into my chest. I wrapped her in my wings to allow her some privacy. Blood and tears began to soak into my coat.

“It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be fine,” I soothed her. “I've got you. I've got you. We're going to get help.”

She screamed in impotent rage and began to kick the ground, forcing me to adjust my grip on her.

“No, no, don't do that. You're okay. You're going to be fine. He's not going to bother you anymore.”

“I swear I heard something.” My brother rounded a corner and came across us. “Windy?”

“Tor, thank Celestia, get help!”

Tentatively, he approached. “What happened?”

“Didn't you bucking hear me? That stallion came back and he hurt Nim. Get help!”

“Did you kill him,” Tor asked, turning his attention to the crumpled body.

“Bucking go now,” I shrieked.

My command finally cut through his dense skull and he turned, galloping off while screaming for help.

I tightened my hold on Nimbus as he disappeared. She was still weeping but her cries had quieted some. Gently, I began to rock her as I spoke. “He's gone. He's gone. He won't bother you ever again.”

I don't know how long we sat there until I began to hear approaching hoofbeats. Instructor Line rounded the corner and approached, flanked by two Guardsponies with Tor bringing up the rear. Her eyes roamed the entire scene before locking onto me.

“What happened?”

I pointed a hoof at the stallion and began to babble. “He was stalking us and attacked us and tried to strangle me and tried to kill Nim and I think I killed him because he hasn't moved and-” My words were cut off as Line peeled back one of my wings and saw Nimbus, who watched her with saucer-sized eyes as she trembled in my embrace.

“Cadet Tornado Kicker, escort these two to the infirmary and inform Doctor Gauze that we have had an assassination attempt. Tell her that I will be with her shortly to interview Cadets Kicker and Gust about what transpired here.”

Tor saluted smartly. “Aye, ma'am.”

Line left us for the body, taking the Guardsponies with her. I helped Nimbus onto his back and he supported me with a wing beneath my belly as we slowly made our way out of the alley and into the sun. Around us, word had already begun to spread about the battle and, like all rumors, most of the information was false. One cadet claimed that I had gotten into a fight with Nimbus over Klutzy Doo. Another claimed that Nimbus had tried, unsuccessfully, to bully me into giving her my urine so she could pass a drug test. A third asserted that it was I who bullied her but refused to speculate on the cause behind the bullying.

I shut them all out and limped with a single-determination. I could understand their speculation. We were both covered in grime and blood and unable to walk under our own power.

I looked behind me just once and saw four more guardsponies enter the walkway where the stallion's body lay. Two were bearing a stretcher and went in while two others took sentry posts at the entrance, working to keep the morbidly curious away from the investigation.

Author's Note

Alright Bronies and Pegasisters. I've made some minor changes to this chapter at the behest of Chengar Qordath, who was helpful enough to give some suggestions on how it could be fixed. Amazing that he would do this for a random contest entry, eh?