Cold Vlight

Jack and Flash exited the train station into the cold north. Indeed it was just as cold as Princess Luna had said it would be. It had a chill that stuck to the fur. It was so cold they could see their breath as a thick fog coming from their mouths.

Once everypony was off the train, the General gave an order. “Soldiers, you all will have three hours to get to know every single pony here. Right now it is unknown who we will choose for the Clever Six, so learn their names well. Any four of these ponies could be your teammates later. Tomorrow we go for the second test. More info will be provided then.”

When General Nightflare turned to leave, some of the soldiers started to follow him. Once he notice them, he turned back and said, “Did you not hear me? you are to learn everypony’s name within three hours!”

“But we are still standing in the freezing cold,” said one of the soldiers.

“Yes that’s first test. To learn all the names while standing in the freezing cold,” said General Nightflare. “Once you have a list of every name, then you can go to the mess hall. However the ones that do not have some sort of a list within three hours, will be sent packing back to Canterlot,” he finished, going to stand beside Captain Shining Armor.

“So sir,” said Shining Armor to General Nightflare. “How long do you think it will take them, to realize the quickest answer?”

“It shouldn’t take too long for some of them,” said Nightflare. “And it seems you already figured it out, son.” General Nightflare always addressed Shining Armor as son, even though there was no family relationship between the two. It was sort of a throwback to the time when Shining Armor was Nightflare’s personal protege years ago.

“It was nothing at all, mentor,” said Shining Armor, as he stood there with a proud smile. Shining Armor had great respect for General Nightflare, often still referring him as his mentor. Shining Armor had learned a great many things from Nightflare.

******

Flash and Jack walked around, gathering names. It was cold. Really cold. The two decided to split up. They thought that they would get done faster if they separated, then they would be able to gather up more names that way. Soon they nearly had every name on the list. However they were still missing two.

******

Jack walked around thinking to himself. ‘Dang it, I need one more name,’ Jack kept walking, not noticing a white unicorn stallion with a spiky red mane, and a telescope cutie mark, approaching him.

“Jack? Jack Nox, is that you?” said the stallion as he walked closer.

Jack turn to see the stallion, “Well, if it isn’t Moondancer’s little brother, Moonchaser,” said Jack, as he walked over and gave him a hoof bump. “What are you doing here?” Jack turned his head slightly “And where’s your sister?” he asked with a slight blush.

“Oh calm down, you don’t have to worry. My sister is still in Canterlot. She’s seems to have locked herself in her room, after the failed party thing,” said Moonchaser. “Beside that, I got pulled into this, because well, I am brilliant.”

“Well that has always been up for debate,” said Jack, an eyebrow raised. “Anyway, it seems I will have to go check up on my mare once this training is over with.”

“Hey, hey, hey, you know very well you have no right to call my sister ‘your mare’ until you have at least properly asked her out on a date,” Moonchaser retorted back.

“What? Are you serious? You know how shy I am around your sister,” said Jack. Indeed, although Jack was often seen as reckless with plenty of stuff, one thing he was always shy about was Moondancer.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you,” said Moonchaser. Moonchaser knew about Jack’s crush on his sister. And it would often annoy Jack Nox to the point of slapping Moonchaser in the back of the head, which he proceeded to do. “Ouch!”

“Well I guess you're my last name,” said Jack, as he walked off. Moonchaser noticed and decided to follow him, as Jack Nox went to go look for Flash.

******

Flash walked about trying to find the final name he was after. “Well if I count the two I met on the train, then I have only one name left,” said Flash as he kept walking. Unbeknownst to Flash, he was being watched by a short, red earth pony stallion with a short navy blue mane, and a ninja star cutie mark. “Dang it, I need one more name,” said Flash.

“Perhaps you should look a little closer.”

The voice came completely out of nowhere. So much so that Flash actually jumped upon hearing it. “Ah, who said that?” said Flash, as he looked around.

“Down here.”

Flash looked down to finally see the red earth pony. He stood shorter than a baby dragon. If Flash had not heard the earth pony speak in a voice way too deep for a colt, he would have definitely mistaken him for a colt. “Oh, sorry, didn’t see you. Your name?” asked Flash.

“Savage Raza,” said the red earth pony.

“Okay, Savage, that’s -- ”

But the earth pony cut Flash off. “Savage Raza, not just Savage.”

“Okay, okay, ‘Savage Raza’, I will try to remember that,” said Flash as he wrote down the name. “Well, looks like I’m done. I better go find Jack,” he said as he took his leave to go look for him. Flash didn’t notice that Savage Raza had already disappeared into the crowd, no longer needing to watch him.

******

Flash and Jack finally met back up. Jack walked to Flash and introduced him to Moonchaser. The three looked at each of their lists and found they had all the names they needed. They walked over to the side where a few others had finished as well.

The three noticed quite few had gotten the same idea as they had. Soon the three hours were up. In the end, it appeared everypony had made it. Next, they went to the mess hall.

But then, “Soldiers,” said General Nightflare, as they all turned their attention toward the General. “As I suspected, you got done in time, however you all could have gotten it done in ten to twenty seconds,” This left all of them baffled - even Jack Nox, the self-proclaim ‘Freakin Genius’ as he had always said he was.

General Nightflare looked around to see all the ponies scratching their heads. Here was supposed to be the cleverest young minds in Equestria and yet none of them could see the obvious answer. “Well, since none of you can figure it out,” said Nightflare, as he turn to Shining Armor. “Shining Armor, if you will, son, give them the answer.”

“Of course,” said Shining Armor, as he pulled out his dogtags. “This is a dogtag, you all have your own.” They all noded in agreement. “And yet none of you realized that this itself is a written down name, you needed a list, yet you already had one, each of your dogtags brought together would have made the list.”

All of them including Flash Sentry and Jack Nox dropped their jaws. Then General Nightflare stepped forward and spoke. “None of you ever once asked what the idea of this test was, you just assumed it was just meant to gather names, but it was to test your cleverness. You will find many times throughout your journeys that a test can disguise itself as something else. The true purpose of this test was for you to spot the obvious, even when it was under you own nose,” Nightflare finally finished. He gave a salute and then, “You all got the names, so you all can now go to the mess hall and then to the barracks for sleep, but be ready bright and early in the morning for the next test.” He finally took his leave of them. Shining Armor followed directly behind him.

*******