The Trojan Brigade Or Light Gust Gets Some Mane

More than apprehension, sheer incomprehension stopped Light Gust from entering the place Twilight had told him to meet her in.

Before him stood a gigantic crystal structure shining in the daylight and casting shimmering pools of light on the ground. Unlike Cloudsdale’s Citadel and Canterlot Castle, Twilight’s residence looked like a natural formation that happened to have taken the form of a castle and shot out from the Earth in such a way that he couldn’t fathom why or how that thing had ended up in Ponyville, a small town with small houses and small goals. On the main street leading straight to the castle, it had been quite the confusing experience to hear ponies talk about their crops and small town gossips while the mountain-like structure towered over them like some gigantic ancient fortress.

And he thought the medical exam had been stressful.

He took a long shaky breath. Everything was going to be alright, Nurse Redheart had even told him he would make a great addition to the program, so there was no need to stress. Even then, his heart beat hard with each of his steps toward the castle. Rather than feel any measure of reassurance as he came closer to his destination, his legs started to waver under him, and sweat pearled on his forehead despite the relatively chilly air. His ears went flat against his head as he entered the shadow of Twilight’s castle and he paused for a long moment.

Would it be like every other time in his life when things just hadn’t turned out right?

The Junior Speedsters Team he let down. The Flight Academy he had given up going to because of the cost. His move to Canterlot to work a dead-end job to try and scrape together enough bits to get by.

He felt the medical paper in his jacket and the memories of the previous hour came rushing back. Nurse Redheart, her kind smile and her encouragements, both verbal and otherwise. Her soft touch. Next to it, a letter from Rarity recommending him to the Brigade. He looked back at the castle and narrowed his eyes, determined to tackle his greatest obstacle yet.

I will not fail. Not this time.

The doors creaked open and Light Gust jumped with a yelp of surprise. A powerful light surged out of the castle, silhouetting something on top of the stairs. Light Gust shielded his eyes from the sight and instinctively readied himself for takeoff.

“Oh, you’re early.” A bored high-pitched voice sounded. “Well, actually, for Twilight you’d be right on time. Maybe a bit late.” The silhouette shrugged. “Oh well.”

Light Gust blinked to chase away the spots in his vision. Even though it was still blurry, he could make out the shape of an upright creature with its arms crossed. It was small. Maybe half the size of the average pony.

“You coming?”

Light Gust snapped out of his daze. “Oh! Yes, of course!”

The creature sighed and ushered him in. As Light Gust entered the light, he saw it clearly. A Dragon child, barely as high as his barrel, with soft rounded spines running along his head and back. Despite his childish appearance, however, the look he cast him was one he’d only seen before on tired bureaucrats and jaded workers who had to deal with some menial task so far under them that worms feasted on it. Still, even with underlying animosity clearly on display, the Dragon gestured to the corridor beyond the doors.

It was made entirely of crystals reflecting the sunlight. Shifting lights crawled along its sides like a gigantic kaleidoscope.

Light Gust offered his best smile. “Thank you, I—”

“ — am so honoured to be here, so lucky to see the princess, yada, yada, yada.” The Dragon rolled his eyes and started forward with a grunt. “Not the first time hearing that, not the last. Now can we just get on with it so I can go back to my comi—”

“Spike!”

The pair stopped dead in their tracks as the shout boomed and echoed in the corridor.

A door at the end of the hallway had opened, and a pony had stepped out, surrounded by a halo of light. An Alicorn with an air of command. A lavender coat in which the prismatic lights shining out of the castle’s walls played, and well-preened wings that would make the most beautiful of Pegasi jealous beyond reason.

She also had a serious case of unkempt mane, and frazzled bangs hung over her eyes. Despite that, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of vertigo seize him as she approached him. Power seemed to emanate from her, ready to explode at any moment.

“I’m so sorry for my assistant’s behaviour.”

Her hoofsteps sounded against the crystal floor. Although her walk was soft, her gaze was two daggers aimed directly at the aforementioned assistant, who cowered as she approached.

Light Gust genuflected, brought to the ground by the approaching pressure. “Your Majesty.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle seemed taken aback for a moment, and shook her head, the anger in her eyes disappearing. And what eyes they were. Despite the dark circles under them, they shone with an intelligence he’d hardly ever seen before, a curiosity that considered him, analysed him.

Finally, her lips rose in a smile. “Please, there’s no need for that. Just call me Twilight.”

“But—”

“No buts. Trust me, I haven’t been a princess long enough for it not to feel weird.”

“Very well—”

“Oh, and also, please don’t do that.” She gestured to his bent knees and looked away with a small cough. “Please. Not long ago I checked out books for a living, and to be honest I still do. See, being a librarian had always been my dream job and once I—”

“Twilight.” Spike’s voice came from behind Light Gust. “You’re doing it again.”

Twilight let out a nervous chuckle. “Sorry. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately. I tend to digress.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Spike said, stepping out from behind Light Gust. “Either I’m working with you or you’re sending me on errands all around Ponyville. It’s getting—”

“If you’d actually work and get some job done, Spike, we wouldn’t have this problem.” She slammed a hoof against the floor and Light Gust jumped at the sudden booming sound. “Instead, you always sneak off to read your comics and leave me to do everything by myself!”

“That only happened once! Okay, twice!” His speech quickened as anger returned to the Alicorn’s eyes. Light Gust scooted to the side, unwilling to be caught in the fight between them. His heart beat like a panicked rabbit while the Dragon and the Alicorn shouted at each other. He had half a mind to turn back and leave to the safety of the clouds. He’d heard tales of the new princess, of her obsessive tendencies, of the way she went on flights of untempered stress. He had pictured her as someone akin to his sister. A bit manic, a bit stressed out. Nothing huge.

The borderline explosive display before him had not been something he had expected. In fact, nothing that happened recently had been anything he had expected. The walls seemed to close down around him as his flight instinct started to kick in. Those damned instincts that made him flee everything.

Those damned instincts that made him leave behind Cloudsdale, his family.

Maybe he should go back to them.

“So I’ll allow you a regular 15-minutes break every four—”

“Two!”

“ — two hours.” Twilight scratched off something on a clipboard.

“With bathroom breaks whenever I want.”

“Two bathroom breaks allowed per hour.”

Spike sighed. “Fair enough.”

Light Gust blinked. Had he missed something? They had been at each other’s throat mere moments ago. Now, the pair was sitting on the ground, a clipboard floating in front of the much calmer Twilight. Spike for his part barely even looked annoyed anymore.

“And that’s when I work here.”

“Mhm.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “No spying on you when you’re doing errands.”

“In exchange, I’ll clean the kitchen every night and rise early to make you coffee every weekday. Oh, and I’ll stop sneaking away.”

“I’ll give you a day off per week and maybe another if I feel like it. Deal?”

“Deal.”

With a last flourish of the quill, the clipboard vanished in a puff of light, and Spike and Twilight shook hoof and claw. Spike pointed his thumb at Light Gust. “Now, you wanna entertain our guest, or…”

Twilight looked at Light Gust like she saw him for the first time. She let out a small gasp and brought a hoof in front of her mouth. “Oh, Celestia! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s— it’s alright.” Light Gust didn’t dare move from his position against the wall quite yet.

Twilight swept strands of wild mane behind her ear like she just realized her appearance wasn’t proper. “As I said, we haven’t gotten much sleep lately, so I might have gotten a tad overwhelmed.”

Light Gust swallowed and nodded. “If I may, what happened?”

She threw a side glance at Spike. “Just some negotiations.” She turned back to Light Gust with a small smile. “Now, you must be Light Gust. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rarity told me only good things about you.”

He gave a nervous chuckle. “Good things?”

If she had heard anything raunchy from her friend, Twilight didn’t show it. She simply nodded with a hum of confirmation. “Yep.”

Despite the Princess’ smile, every hair and feather on Light Gust rose as a feeling of imminent danger overcame him. Corner-danger, Pegasi called it. When you were flying, you learned quickly that the biggest threats were those just out of your line of sight and developed a strong feel for dangers just at the corner of your eye.

And at that moment, for a brief second, he could swear that two reptilian eyes bore holes through his skull, and a faint puff of smoke dissipated through the air above Spike’s nostrils. When Light Gust turned his gaze to meet the Dragon’s, however, he only wore a bored expression, leaning against the wall with one foot crossed in front of the other. Spike rose an eyebrow. “What?”

“Uh, nice castle you have here.” Light Gust tried to hide his discomfort by flashing Twilight a grin he felt painfully fake. “Didn’t expect to see anything like this in Ponyville.”

“Me neither, honestly. It just kinda grew out of the ground.”

Light Gust waited for the punchline, but seeing the absolute seriousness in Twilight’s expression, he decided this was not a question to press.

“Well I’ll leave you two be.” Spike pushed himself off the wall and pattered away toward the entrance. Before leaving through the gigantic double doors, he cast a backward glance at Light Gust and narrowed his eyes. The Pegasus swallowed painfully. Whatever bone the Dragon had to pick with him, he wanted none of it.

“He’s usually not that moody.” Twilight ushered him toward the end of the hallway, and Light Gust followed without skipping a beat, all too eager to put any kind of distance between Spike and himself. “I think he’s just mad he didn’t get to finish his comic before you arrived.”

“I’ll take your word on that, Princess,” Light Gust said. “I’m sure you know him better than I do.”

“Well, yeah, I pretty much raised him alone from the egg.”

Light Gust whistled in admiration. Although Spike didn’t look too old, the Princess of Friendship showed no sign of being much older than a young adult herself. “Impressive.”

The Alicorn puffed up her chest at that and shot him a confident smirk. “I actually helped him hatch way back when I first joined Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She was so impressed she insisted on me becoming her personal protégée. He hasn’t left me ever since.”

Light Gusts nodded, unsure how to even respond to that. The most responsibility he himself ever had trust upon him had been taking care of a young skyfin which had strayed away from its family. It hadn’t lasted more than a couple of days before his father had found its nest and brought it back. He couldn’t even start to wrap his mind around having to take care of such an incredibly rare creature at such a young age as the Princess did.

But then again, she was Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship herself. If the story he had heard about her were true, raising a Dragon was the least of her impressive feats.

And impressive she was. Not only in term of accomplishments, but as she walked before him, he started to realize just how incredible her very appearance was. Now that he had had a better view of her, there was a subtle height difference between the two of them. Not enough that he had noticed it at first glance, but enough that it had reinforced the aura of command that had given him his previous case of vertigo. She wore it so naturally he would never had noticed had it not been for her horn. There, the difference between her and a regular unicorn was marked, as the elongated spiraling alicorn reached almost twice the size of a normal horn. That anomaly had made him examine the rest of her body more closely, and it hadn’t taken him long to see that her transformation which had been the talk of Equestria for a solid month had done more than give her wings. Her legs were long and slender, and her body more defined than that of a regular Pony.

And by Celestia did she have a glorious butt.

A glorious butt which danced in a hypnotic fashion as she swayed her hips. He couldn’t tell if she did it on purpose or not, but he could say he never wanted her to stop. With each of her steps, with each bounce of her ass, her tail swung like a teasing curtain before a forbidden treasure.

“Light Gust?”

“Yes, Princess!” The Pegasus snapped back to reality with a spike of fear. The Princess was looking right at him, stopped in front of a closed door. He had almost bumped into her. Had she noticed him staring? Even though his job was surely more sexually charged than any other, he was pretty sure there was a hard limit to staring at a Princess’ ass.

“How about you tell me a bit about yourself?” Princess Twilight smiled back at Light Gust. Her horn glowed alight and the door opened before them. If she had noticed him staring at her, she didn’t seem to feel any need to mention it or berate him about it. “Given how strongly Rarity recommended you, I bet you have a lot of interesting things to say.”

They stepped into the newly-opened room while Light Gust gathered his thoughts. Or rather, tried gathering his thoughts. The sheer size of the room crushed any attempt at focusing on those. In the image of the castle as a whole, crystal made up the entirety of the room, casting a rainbow of shimmering colours around the floor. An equally crystalline table jutted from the ground in the middle of it all, surrounded by six gigantic thrones and a smaller one. Just over it, an array of shining crystal pearls hung from tree roots like a myriad of sentinels watching the room. It took him a few moments to adjust to the sight of the single room bigger than his entire apartment.

“Please, sit.”

The soft voice made Light Gust start again. While he wasn’t looking, the Princess had sat in the throne next to the smaller one. She gestured to a throne facing her. Her deep purple eyes were set on him, watching as he took place on his designated seat. There was something about those eyes. Far from cold, promising instead a gentle guidance, he still couldn’t help but feel as vulnerable as a foal in front of one of his flight instructors.

The seat wasn’t cold like he had expected. Rather, the crystal radiated a soft heat. He squirmed a bit in it, trying to adjust to the strange feeling of the heated crystal.

He looked back at Princess Twilight, who smiled at him, expectant.

“Oh.” He scratched the nape of his neck, which had suddenly become itchy at the realization his life pretty much amounted to nothing. “Well, I was born in a good family, went through flight school with good grades, moved to Canterlot where I met Rarity, witnessed the near-end of the world, and found out apparently I’m one of the only remaining stallions who can actually, you know…”

He winced. At his last words, the Princess’ ears dropped slightly and a shadow crossed her face. He inwardly scolded himself. Of course, that even must have taken its toll on her.

“Princess, if I may,” he ventured to say, “the world owes you so much.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

She cast a longing look at the crystals hanging from the gigantic roots overhead. “What good is it to save the world if you end up dooming it instead?”

Light Gust stayed silent. What could you say when one of your heroes, one of Equestria’s greatest defenders, looked so down on herself despite the strong face she presented?

“That was a question, Light Gust.”

The Pegasus started out of his thoughts. Princess Twilight’s eyes had gone from soft, to longing, to calculating in the matter of seconds in such a way that shivers went up his spine.

“I don’t think you should blame yourself for that,” he said slowly. “What matters is that you did what was right when you needed to.”

He waited, unable to look her straight in the eyes. He didn’t know— he couldn’t know! He had never been in the situation the Alicorn had been! He had just said what had come to mind in the moment.

Still, Princess Twilight seemed to ponder over what he had said for the briefest of instants. When she straightened back on her throne, he had the feeling she had done more introspection over his line in a second than he could ever do in his entire life.

A dizzying thought.

“Thank you,” she said. The smile she gave him almost made his heart skip a beat from how genuine it was. “I mean it. I think Rarity made the right choice in recommending you to the Brigade.”

He bowed his head. “It’s nothing, really.”

Couldn’t even keep himself from mumbling like a fluttering schoolfilly. Great start.

Princess Twilight brought her hooves forward on the crystalline table with a look of seriousness, all trace of the warmth she had shown moments ago gone. “There is a reason why I asked you this question. As a matter of fact, I asked it to every candidate that ever crossed this door.”

She fell silent again, waiting for him to ask the obvious question. “Why?”

“It’s very simple.” She got up from her seat with a swish of her mane and started pacing around the table. “I believe somepony’s first reaction is telling of their deep character, and a good start to guide them through their journey in the Brigade. I have received all kinds of answers, some alike, some not. But looking at how the answer is delivered is the most important step of all.”

She stopped near him and considered him. “You showed admirable adaptation. Even though you were wholly unprepared for this session and showed clear signs of anxiety and stress, you answered in a concise, polite, and disarming way. You also showed you can read people fairly well, appealing to my worry about the immediacy of the situation I had been plunged into and reassuring me that my decision had been driven by a want to help instead of foolishness.”

She grinned while he tried to come down from the rush that overcame him. If it hadn’t been for sheer luck in answering the right way, he would have stepped right through a cloud and plummeted to the ground, embarrassing himself and dashing all chance at ever making it into the Brigade.

Probably.

“Are you sure you want to be part of the Brigade?”

The question took him aback. “Why do you ask?”

She walked back to her throne and laid her chin on her hooves. “This organization is an open secret. It’s not the easy life you might think is going to await you. I’ve had too many young stallions come to me asking to be part of it simply by virtue of having been spared. They come in thinking their life will amount to live in a luxurious palace surrounded by mares with which they — well I don’t think I need to go into much more detail about what they think. Most of them ask to leave after a week. All of them save for a few ask to leave after a month.”

She kept her eyes on him, and he knew she was granting him time to think and process what she had told him. “What happens to them?”

She grinned. “That’s a secret!”

“Um…”

After a few seconds of Light Gust probably making the most embarrassing terrified face Princess Twilight had ever seen, the Alicorn burst into laughter.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. It never gets old.” She regained her composure, although a small mocking smile remained. “In truth, I send them home with — ah — a few less memories. It’s a benign process but not a particularly pleasant one, and I try to avoid it whenever I can.”

Light Gust swallowed a hard lump in his throat. “I can understand that.”

“I’ll give you a few minutes.” She rose from her throne. “Well, honestly, take as much time as you want. Spike will show you the kitchen so you can get some snacks to help you think. If you decide to continue forward with this, I’ll walk you through everything. If you don’t, well, I’ll let you decide where you want to go from here.”

“Where I want to go from here?”

She nodded. “I’m not ungrateful. Just for showing up here, I’ll help you with whatever endeavour you want to undertake.”

He stared at her, dumbfounded. “For real?”

“Hmhm.”

While he thought of all the possibilities a Princess’ help would help him attain, she trotted out of the door, leaving him alone in the cavernous room. He dumbly followed her with his gaze. Whatever he had imagined her being like, the princess that had welcomed him couldn’t have been further from what he had expected. Well, not entirely. Despite her seeming much more unstable than the poised Alicorn he had imagined, he had felt the sharpness of her mind as clearly as a knife pressed against him. It had been a crushing sensation, the feeling of being less than a dumb child before a tidal wave of brilliance.

What exactly had he gotten himself into?

Before he could push his reflexion further, the door to the throne room opened again and in walked a bored-looking Dragon. He stopped a few meters away from the table and glared at Light Gust.

“Hey,” Spike said.

“Hey.”

The two stared at each other, Light Gust holding Spike’s hateful gaze as best he could. It was so strange. One part of himself wanted to hold Spike’s gaze in defiance, unimpressed by the child’s petulant attitude. However, another part of himself wanted to look away and cower before the fire-breathing, razor-sharp-claws-possessing beast.

Spike sighed and turned to another door. “Follow me this way.”

The Dragon halfheartedly ushered Light Gust into the kitchen. Not quite as vast as the throne room, it was a homely place with a half-wall separating the kitchen proper from the eating area, where two chairs flanked a simple table. A few plates of cookies, veggies, and other snacks waited on the table. For some reason, a bowl of expensive-looking gems also adorned it. Well, surely the Princess didn’t fear anyone stealing a gem in her own home.

Not that she didn’t have enough gemstones or crystals to go around....

As he went to sit, something caught Light Gust’s eye. The chair opposite the one he was sitting in was covered in scratch marks.

“Serve yourself.” Spike gestured to the plates with an exaggerated bow, letting the door slide shut behind him before making his way to the table.

Light Gust’s stomach didn’t resist the smell of freshly-baked cookies for long, and, soon enough, he had one of the soft scrumptious goodies in his mouth. Tender, warm, and filled with chocolaty goodness, he couldn’t even remember his own mother making them as good as the one he had the joy — neigh, privilege — of tasting. Another cookie followed after the first one, each bite nothing short of heavenly.

“Wow, those are really good!” He swallowed a half-chewed bite and licked his lips. “Did Twilight make them?”

Spike scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Please. Twilight wouldn’t be able to take her nose out of her books long enough to make herself coffee, let alone bake a tray of cookies.”

The Dragon reached up to the scratch-covered chair, and, like a squirrel, climbed on the seat by digging his claws into the seat before pulling himself fully onto the chair and dropping down on it. The gem bowl clinked as he swiped a big ruby from it and twirled it between his claws.

“You mean you made them?” Light Gust’s voice didn’t quite tremble from the sight of Spike’s exposed claws, but his cookie suddenly felt hard to swallow.

“Yep.”

Spike brought the ruby to his mouth, and Light Gust stopped chewing.

Spike bit down on the ruby with a sickening crunch, and Light Gust almost jumped in surprise. However, instead of the broken teeth and unhinged jaw he expected to see, Spike’s teeth were intact, save for bits of gemstone glistening on them. He gestured to the plate of cookies with his half-bitten ruby . “Made them all myself. Don’t make a mess of crumbs.”

Whether Spike had willingly wanted to intimidate him or not, he definitely succeeded. Light Gust tried not to think of the stone-breaking jaws chewing on pure mineral right in front of him, and instead turned his thoughts to the question at hand.

Are you sure you want to be part of the Bridgade?

No. No he wasn’t. And that thought killed him. The only reason he had gone there in the first place was…

The letter he had received only a few days ago. He took it out of his flight jacket’s front pocket and unfolded it. The faint scent of Rarity’s mane was still on it.

Dearest Light Gust,

Surely you have heard of the special task my good friend Twilight Sparkle has put together, called the Trojan Brigade. Despite her insistence they remain a secret, not a day passes without them being mentioned in the newspaper.

I digress. The reason why I am writing you this letter is quite a simple one. Surely, you must remember that wonderful evening we had a few months ago, shortly before I had to go back to Ponyville. I know I remember it fondly. I have caught wind you haven’t been affected by Tirek’s evil curse after his defeat and I just had to give your name to Twilight as a personal recommendation.

I so dearly hope you accept this invitation to join us in Ponyville.

Yours,

Rarity.

He folded it again and put it back in his pocket with a sigh.

When he looked back up, he caught Spike’s burning glare boring holes through him. Thin tendrils of smoke were coming out of his wrinkled nose.

“Aren’t you supposed to be thinking about staying or leaving?” The Dragon puffed out a cloud of smoke.

“I’m trying.” Light Gust had half a mind to tell Spike he really wasn’t making that job any easier for him by being such an acerbic jerk for no reason, but the telltale black mist that settled around the Dragon like a cloak of sooth held him back.

“Well, hurry up, I don’t have all day.”

Light Gust frowned. Spike wasn’t looking straight at him anymore. Rather, his gaze seemed to be directed at the pocket containing Rarity’s letter. After a few seconds, even his harsh glare softened to an almost longing stare.

Truly, the crystals in this castle must have had the effect of making everyone exposed to them unstable and volatile like an uncorked bottle of storm clouds.

Of course, he wouldn’t have minded if said inhabitants weren’t an Alicorn who could probably scatter his atoms to the wind, and a Dragon who could burn him to a crisp.

Although either of them doing so would probably never happen, Light Gust couldn’t stop himself from contemplating the possibility. Pegasi tended to be especially sensitive to dangers however small they were. Such was the perk of living a life where one collision with a bird at the wrong angle could send you plummeting to your doom.

Light Gust’s danger sense had picked up and stuck with him ever since Twilight had mentioned all those stallions who wanted to opt out of the Brigade shortly after joining. He sighed with nervosity. That deal seemed less and less tempting as he thought about it. It might have not been Princess Twilight’s intent to put him on edge, but he couldn’t help himself.

He felt his pocket for Rarity’s letter. Truth be told, she had been the reason why he had even considered it in the first place. That, and he couldn’t help but respect Princess Twilight not only for all the work she had put into that Brigade, but all of her feats she had accomplished during the last two years.

Even if she came off as a bit unstable.

“You know, most stallions who come here usually don’t take that long,” Spike shot dryly. “It’s just a simple yes or no answer.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds like.” Light Gust’s tone came off sharper than he had intended to, his nerves starting to be rubbed raw by the Dragon’s acrimonious gibes.

Spike rolled his eyes. There was an odd twitch to his ear frills when Light Gust spoke, the Pegasus noticed, like his voice was grating on Spike. And he just kept staring at the flight pocket containing the letter too, his eyes narrow, his nose wrinkled.

“If you can’t decide, then maybe you should just leave.”

This time it was Light Gust’s turn to frown. “What?”

“Obviously,” Spike said, “if you can’t make up your mind then you don’t really have much to gain by accepting. You should just go back to Cloudsdale or whatever, and go back to your normal life.”

“Well maybe I’ll do that!” Light Gust snorted, his irritation reaching a peak. “I’ve been considering taking Princess Twilight up on her offer to help me with whatever I wanted, and I think I’ll do just that. I don’t need to stay here with a Dragon that’s constantly insulting me.”

Spike snorted in turn. “Sure. Man, I really fail to see what Rarity saw in you.”

Light Gust froze. “Excuse me?”

“Light Gust this, Light Gust that, blergh.” He let his tongue stick out in disgust. “She couldn’t shut up about you for weeks after she came back from Canterlot.”

“I—”

“I bet she begged you to come here, didn’t she?” He sneered. His tone became harsher, more spiteful with every word. “I could smell her on that letter from here. Bet you would never have ever considered applying if she hadn’t asked.”

Taken aback, Light Gust was at a lost for words. “What do you mean you could smell her?”

“Dragon nose.” He tapped his snout with an angry smirk. “I can smell her perfume on that letter as well as I can smell the stink of fear on you.”

A shiver ran up Light Gust’s spine despite himself. Spike grinned, wicked-sharp teeth showing.

In that moment, he made his decision.

“You’re right.”

Spike blinked. “Huh?”

“You’re right. I would never have come here if she hadn’t asked. This all was a mistake. Let’s go.”

Spike let himself down his chair with visible surprise. However, it didn’t last long before delight took the place of his puzzled expression. “Perfect! Let’s go see Twilight.”

Light Gust swiped another cookie and shoved it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. He didn’t know what clouds Spike had to kick with him, but that hadn’t stopped him from making some damn good cookies.

Light Gust became more lost in thought than he had expected as they walked to Princess Twilight’s office. Again and again, the decision he had taken came back to his mind to prod him like a painful stab.

I’m going to go back to Cloudsdale and finally go to the Flight Academy.

The high cost of admission had barred him entry the first time he thought of joining. But with enough luck, Princess Twilight would be generous enough to get the Academy to waive his tuition or pay in his place. She was a princess, surely she could afford to do that.

Although going to her with his tail between his legs broke his heart.

But he couldn’t do it. Maybe he had wanted to return Rarity’s favour? Maybe see her again? Whatever the case, he couldn’t do it. Not if the job implied so much secrecy and danger. Not if he had to rub shoulders with that Dragon.

Spike opened the door the the Princess’ office with more energy and cheerfulness than was necessary. “We’re back!”

“Oh!” Twilight took her eyes off a book she was reading. “Back so soon?”

The office was a small room with a simple, paper-covered desk, and two chairs in front of it. A row of bookshelves spread along the walls, surely only a fraction of the archive-like library the castle was rumoured to have. It was comfortably cramped, like the office of the Flight School’s headmaster.

“Yep!” Spike practically skipped into the room and stopped in one sharp motion before Twilight. “It wasn't that hard, really.”

He looked back at Light Gust with a wicked grin. “Sometimes the decision makes itself.”

Twilight leaned forward with an excited smile. Light Gust stepped into the room.

“I'm—”

I can't do this. Forgive me, Princess.

“I—”

However I would like to graciously accept your offer to help me. See, a dream of mine—

“Come on!” Spike's biting tone made Light Gust jump. “We don't have all day!”

— is to see that arrogant, annoying jerk of an overgrown lizard be catapulted out of a window!

Cold anger shot over everything else. How could Princess Twilight deal with that thing all day?!

“Guess I'll just say it then.” Spike snorted. “Poor guy's too much of a—”

“I accept!”

The Dragon fell silent for a second, then exploded. “WHAT?!”

“If you believe I would be a good fit for the Brigade, then it’s only right that I would return that trust.” He shot a quick look at the Dragon. “It was an easy decision.”

Princess Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Great! I was afraid for a second you were going to refuse. Oh well, I am so glad you accepted.”

What have I done?

Below him, twin volcanoes glared at him with unrelenting fury.

Twilight hopped off her chair and trotted to Light Gust. “Spike will finish your paperwork. I’ll show you to your room.”

“I—”

“I insist!” A lavender aura opened the door and she went out of the room, beckoning Light Gust to follow with a nod.

“Yeah, just go.” There was an almost imperceptible growl in Spike’s voice, but Light Gust heard it as clearly as if it was a thunderstorm roaring outside. “I love filling out paperwork.”

Twilight beamed at him. “Wow, I thought you would complain about having to do all that. Well, you’re not my number one assistant for nothing!” She turned back and winked at Light Gust. “Follow me.”

Light Gust followed Twilight in the corridors of the massive crystal castle. A sensation of vertigo rose in him, worse than any dive he ever had to make.

What had he done?

Had he taken the job simply to spite Spike?

That thought brought him as much comfort as shame. But in a way, he had spoken the truth.

Princess Twilight had put her trust in him. She deserved the same respect.

It didn’t change the fact that he felt like he had done something horribly, horribly wrong.