Royal Guard Academy

Cleaning the floor took several minutes. But once they were done, Eagle looked around and said, “We'll do a better job once you get those lint rollers tomorrow. Now you need to get to your details. Wonder twins, help out wherever you're needed. Trash crew, there is no trash yet so go outside and find another TI and tell them you're part of trash crew, they'll teach you everything you need to know. And make sure you're wearing your IDs before you step out of this dorm! Go on, you two get moving.”

Flitter Bug and Blizzard Blast checked that they had their cards, and then trotted out.

“Bed aligners, stay here. Hallway crew, there should be spray bottles with an orange chemical in them, grab a couple of those and some rags and get to wiping down the walls and the floor. I'll check on you in a bit.” Eagle watched Blue and Mudslide hurry to do as told. “Utility crew, keep an eye on supplies in the utility room, if we run low on anything you know where to go to get more.”

“Yes, ma'am!”

“Dayroom crew, get to picking lint out of that furniture and make sure my whiteboard is clean and shiny!”

Ocean and Nightshade ran out.

“Stairwell crew! You will also grab some of those spray bottles, and go into the stairwell to clean like I explained earlier. Get to it and don't fall down the stairs!”

“Yes, ma'am!”

A few seconds later and the door was opening and then slamming shut.

“Latrine crew, get what you need and get in the latrine! Tempest, tell them what to do and keep an eye on them once you're in there! Move it!”

“Yes, ma'am!” Tempest jerked her head toward the hallway and hurried out, the other five in her group following her. As she stepped into the utility room, she heard Eagle address the bed aligners and begin showing them their job. Tempest levitated up some bottles. “Okay, this orange stuff is apparently heavy duty, good for cleaning the toilets and shower handles. Who wants to clean toilets?”

Understandably, no one stepped up.

“Okay then.” Tempest looked at the waiting mares, and said, “There's two rows of toilets in there, right? The front stalls and then you go around to those back stalls. I think there were about ten toilets in all, so... Okay, two of you will work to clean those.” She considered her options, then said, “Uh... sorry, Storm.”

“Hey, whatever man, it's gotta get done,” Storm replied, accepting a bottle from her.

“Sword, would you like to help her out?” Tempest asked.

“Sure, ma'am.” Sword took the other bottle.

“Great, thank you. And I'll probably be switching you guys around every week or so. Unless you get really good at what you're doing, in which case I might just leave you there. Depends on how I feel. Okay, I'll also need one of you to clean the mirrors with this blue chemical...” Tempest passed that one over to Dream Walker. “Here. Spray the mirrors, wipe them off with a rag, try not to leave lint. Think you can handle that?”

“Heh, I'll do my best.”

“You'll also use that to clean out the sinks. Oh, by the way guys, if I've given you a task, go ahead and start cleaning.”

Three of them filed out, taking a collection of rags with them.

Tempest examined the supplies, and said, “Ah, yes. Someone's gonna have to clean all those shiny metal stall doors. Now...” She lowered her voice as she picked up another blue bottle. “I know Major Eagle said to use this, but if you pour soap from the dispenser onto a paper towel and just use that, I won't say a word.” She winked, and gave the bottle to Fizzy Pop.

The mare's eyes widened. “Ooh. Got ya.” She smiled and pranced off.

That just left Tempest standing there with Calli. She gave her a smirk, and picked up an orange bottle and a few rags. “Well, guess that just leaves you with one particular job, since I'm going to be cleaning the shower handles and those shelves in there.”

“As long as I don't have to do something as disgusting as cleaning toilets, I'll take whatever you wanna give me,” Calli replied.

“I'm so glad. Because you have a vital job.” Tempest leaned down, and grabbed a pair of large tweezers off a shelf. “You get to pull strands of hair out of the shower drains and make sure the floor in there isn't all covered in fur! Here's a broom and dustpan too, enjoy!”

“Ugh, seriously?” Calli complained as she took the items.

Tempest raised a brow at her. “I mean, do you want to clean the toilets, because I'm sure Storm or Sword would be more than happy to trade.”

“Okay, fine, I'll do it.”

“Haha, thought so! Come on.” Tempest led the way. She pushed open the door to the latrine, and found the others well at work with their tasks. “Alright everyone, good job, let's get this done and then we can get back out of here and hopefully have a little bit of time to relax tonight.”

“First real night, though?” Storm asked, flapping her wings to hover just above the stall. “I don't think that's happening.”

“True but hey, let me dream.”

Dream stopped working, looking back at them. “Somepony say my name?”

“Sorry, I said dream, but not like, capital dream,” Tempest apologized.

“Dang it, I always do that.” Dream went back to shining her mirror.

Tempest chuckled and ushered Calli over toward the showers, and let the door to the latrine close. Once it was closed, she realized it was rather quiet in here. Eagle was out in the dorm yelling but this area was almost peaceful. Hm, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad detail. She headed into the showers and went to the first handle, diligently cleaning it. Things didn't look too bad yet. They just got here and no doubt the dorm had been thoroughly cleaned by the last flight before they left. But if they wanted to keep it looking this nice, they had to clean consistently, every day. They had no doubt Eagle would keep them on track with that.

They had been working for only about five minutes when Eagle came in. “And how's my latrine crew enjoying their job?”

“It's great, ma'am!” Storm called.

“Shut up, Trainee, no one likes a flank-kisser.” Eagle walked into the shower area, looking around. She stepped carefully around where Calli was picking at a drain, and said, “Tempest, how are they doing?”

Tempest turned to face her, going to attention. “Ma'am, Trainee Tempest-”

“Oh you don't need to go to attention, you're working. Just answer me.”

“Ma'am, everyone's doing the jobs I gave them and from what I've seen, they're doing well.”

“Of course you would think that.” Eagle reached up to run a hoof along one of the shelves, and lowered it to check. “You left lint up here, Dream needs to check the mirrors from all angles before moving to the next one to make sure she didn't miss any smudges, and Sword and Storm need to learn to actually clean UNDER the toilet lids, no matter how gross they may find it. And as for you, Calli.” Eagle turned to her, and she glanced up, her horn glowing as she held the tweezers. “It's hair, it's not going to hurt you. Wrench it out of there. I don't want my latrine getting flooded because of clogged drains. Now back to work, I'm running down to see how trash crew is doing.”

“Yes, ma'am!” the trainees in the latrine all called, causing an echo.

Eagle swept out. They heard her call a few more orders, and then she left the dorm entirely.

After a moment, Tempest said, “Whoa, did you guys hear the acoustics in here?”

“Whazzat?” Fizzy asked, poking her head around the corner to look at her.

“The acoustics. Listen.” Tempest took a breath, and sang, “Equestria, the land I love, a land of harmony! Our flag does wave, from high above, for ponykind to seeeee!” She held the note so it echoed around the room, and stopped there. “See? It echoes just enough to sound really cool.”

“Oh, wow!” Fizzy hopped into the shower room and belted out, “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head! Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed!”

“Lullabies are supposed to be quiet,” Calli replied with a scowl.

“Pft, you guys are lame,” Storm said, flying smoothly into the room. “This is how a real cool pony does it.” She reared her head back. “The fire of friendship lives in our hearts! As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart! Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few! Laughter and singing will see us through...”

“Will see us throughh!” Fizzy joined in.

“Alright as much as I would love to sing the entire Equestrian anthem with y'all, we should probably stop before Major Eagle comes back and hears us,” Tempest said.

“Aww. Okay.” They got back to working.

“Finally,” Calli said.

Tempest moved along to the next shower head, and said, “Hey, Calli?”

“Hm?”

“Is everything alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Major Eagle kinda drew a lot of attention to you earlier while she was smoking us. I just... want to make sure you're okay. That had to be embarrassing.”

“I'm fine,” Calli replied, getting up and walking over to another drain. She leaned down to inspect it, didn't see anything stuck in it, and moved to the next.

“Okay. But if you ever need to talk, I'm here. I know we all deal with stress differently and I hold nothing against you for our argument earlier. We're all frustrated. Just... know that we're all a family now, we all gotta have each other's backs. Training will be so much better if we can help each other instead of fighting.”

Calli was quiet for a few moments as she dug the tweezers deep into one of the drains. Then she said, “I have a lot of ponies rooting for me to make it through and become one of Canterlot's best officers. I cannot fail.”

“Then stop making smart remarks and trying to annoy people. We need to get along. Leaders need to be able to understand their followers. You'll need to show that you care about them. That's how you get true respect. If your subordinates see that you care, they'll do anything to serve you. And leading through compassion is so much more effective than leading through fear.”

“I'll keep it in mind, Commander Hurricane.”

Tempest rolled her eyes, but kept a level voice when she replied, “Sounds good.” She wasn't going to push it. She could offer advice but in the end it was up to Calli to learn to be less abrasive and get along with the others. And Tempest was still giving her the benefit of the doubt, that maybe she was just so stressed she was lashing out at others. If in time it turned out that Calli really couldn't, or wouldn't, behave professionally, she could deal with the situation then.

Minutes passed in relative silence. A few of the others talked quietly, but every time they heard what they thought was a door opening, they would pause for a few moments and someone would go open the latrine door to see if Eagle had returned. Then they'd come back in and go back to talking.

But when Eagle finally did come back, she made it really obvious. By unlocking the dorm door, coming in, and then slamming it behind her. “I'm back! Did you miss me?” she called so loud that she could be heard even in the latrine.

Several trainees greeted her, and she said, “Ah, shut up.”

Anything else she said that point was inaudible.

Tempest did a walk around to see how everyone was doing. It looked pretty clean, and she figured that'll do for tonight and told them to start wrapping up. She hoped the other details were going well. She was going past the mirrors when Eagle came back in. “It's looking much better in here,” she said with approval, going up to a mirror and taking off her helmet, smoothing back her mane. “And you'll only get better at this in time. Now, bring all your rags over to the utility room. Wingus and Dingus will have a trash bag for you to toss them into so they can wash them.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

They filed out of the room, and joined the other trainees in putting things away. The pegasus twins were already at work organizing things in the utility room, and Pine held open a bag for all the rags to get tossed into.

“Is that all of them?” Eagle asked, looking around. “Okay, good. Go ahead and wash those.” Eagle lifted her foreleg. “Would you look at the time! We have exactly five minutes until lights out! Holy hell, trainees! Aren't you in luck? Now you mind yourselves, and Pine, forget about washing the rags, you can do that tomorrow. If you put them in the washer now you won't be awake to move them into the dryer. Although- actually, wait!” She turned to point a foreleg at an unfamiliar trainee, who went to attention. “You, you're from Dorm 3B2, right?”

“Yes, ma'am!” the earth pony replied.

“You and your pal are here for dorm guard duty, eh?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Good. If Pine Glider here tosses these rags into the washer, can I count on you to put them in the dryer once they're ready?”

“You can count on me!”

“That's what I like to hear.” Eagle stepped passed her, and patted her buddy on the shoulder. “Don't let her forget.”

“Of course not, ma'am.”

“Haha, I can always rely on you tenth weekers.” Eagle went to the door. “You know the drill, make sure they get to bed, yell at them if they talk, make sure their security drawers are locked and write up the ones who forget. I'll be back in the morning.” To her trainees, she called, “Congrats on a full day! And tomorrow will be even more fun! Goodnight, Flight 25!”

“Goodnight, ma'am!”

Eagle swept out.

Tempest stretched and went to her bed, smoothing out the covers and yawning. She was more than ready to lay down. But as she couldn't yet, she sat in her chair and took out her study guide, deciding to get an early start on the first chapter.

Lemon, meanwhile, went to talk to the dorm guards. “Hey, um... do you know what we'll be doing tomorrow?”

“From what we saw on the CQ schedule, you've got more in-processing appointments,” one of them replied. “CQ is charge of quarters, by the way. That's the office down at the bottom of every dorm building, it's where command is, and where the TIs go to get away from us for a bit and do administrative stuff. CQ also keeps schedules for every flight in our building. So yeah, you guys are gonna go to the armory tomorrow morning and bring your spears up here, take down the serial numbers, and store them. Then I think you have another medical appointment, but don't worry, it'll just be like an eye exam and dental thing. Um... I'm not sure what else.”

“Trip to the store,” her buddy replied.

“Oh yeah!”

“So yeah, she'll definitely tell you what you should buy, but go ahead and start thinking about it now. She'll probably run you through there pretty quickly. You might have figured it out by now, but get lint rollers. Lint rollers, clipboards, and rulers will save your life.”

Tempest made a note of that.

“Anyway, you should probably head back into the bay, lights out is in about-”

Music played from outside.

“...Yeah.”

They waited for it to finish, and then everyone put away whatever they had out and went to get in bed.

“Goodnight, and I hope tomorrow goes well,” one of the guards said, and then flicked the lights off.

Tempest burrowed under the covers, stretching out and sighing. She turned her ears a few ways to listen to the others, but there was considerably less sniffling tonight. Good, they were already getting used to things. This really wasn't tough, it was just different. There was a lot of nonsense today, but they were new. They'll figure it out as time goes on, get into a rhythm, become friends, and the rest of training will be smooth sailing. She hoped.