Shining Armour's Military Academy

Chapter 3

Thunder Dasher woke up from her short sleep across from a still resting Haze Etcher. Thunder's eyes stung from her inability to fall unconscious in a foreign bed, her wings were sore as a result of lying on her back throughout the night, her mind uneasy from coming to terms with being away from her family. Although with company across the room, Thunder felt alone and very bored, the adrenaline from winning now gone and the happiness fading.

The parents of Thunder Dasher were middle class Cloudsdale Pegassi. Her mother was working as an engineer while her father stayed to tend to the other younger siblings. The Dasher family were very tightly knitted in Cloudsdale, which made Thunder's departure all the more painful, even with the massive support she was given in preparation. Sleeping in a new bed especially, was an incredibly strange experience.

Awoken with no chance of returning to a dreamless state, Thunder Dasher sat upright upon her bed, staring at the vast emptiness though a dew stained window and beginning to to carelessly brush her mane. The endless fields were beautiful and daunting, the freedom it represented for Thunder was like that of what she wished for back at home. Now that she had what she wanted, she was conflicted with fear, homesickness and a bubbling excitement. A large portion of tiredness covered the side areas of the filly's thoughts and another section of intrigue at forming new relationships poured into the last empty spaces of Thunder's mind.

“Thunder? You all right?” Haze yawned between her words, welcoming the new day with slowly opening eyes.

“Haze are you my friend?” Outright, Thunder Dasher spoke with a worried tone.

“Sure you are! We won the game together and sleep in the same room silly.” The dark furred pony sat upright to meet the anxious gaze from across the room.

“Thanks Haze.” Thunder Dasher smiled in relief, crossing loneliness off her list.

A loudspeaker in the corner of the dormitory glowed and filled the room with the loud tune of reveille. Following the unwanted and rather annoying noise, the voice of Shining Armour drew the attention of all the Academy's residents.

“Gooooood morning colts and fillies!” Shining Armour's wake-up mimicked a movie that Haze Etcher had once watched with the captain, against Silver's wishes.

“Today is Sunday; a day which our princesses have granted to us as a day of rest. At our academy, Sunday will truly justify its description as a day of rest. Rest is not just sitting around all day doing nothing, no, otherwise we wouldn't have lounges, recreational sports grounds and open music rooms. Trust me, some days you will want to just lie down and sleep though the day, that is fine, I do that too. My only orders of the day are to respect your equipment, respect your fellow students and to learn one thing new about absolutely anything. That will be all. Oh, and breakfast is in an hour. ”

The happy message ended, giving the students a warm feeling of self control. For the first time in most of the colts and fillies lives, they had complete responsibility for themselves, minus the negatives of adult pony life. Shining Armour was keen to give the children a family feeling, his messages and socially oriented facilities an example of the way in which he hoped to build a 'regiment' of not just disciplined, but happy individuals.

Ponies all around the academy would be returning to sleep if it was not for the sweet smell of cooking coming from the school's canteen. Instead of laziness, students congregated in the showers and outside the toilets. Colts grouped with other colts and fillies with fillies as they joined together outside their accommodations, only the braver of the ponies attempting to join packs of the opposite gender. Some of these young ponies with the confidence to mix included Haze and Thunder who met with Masquerade and Stargaze at the canteen entrance, all four of them also being the first students outside.

“I am starving.” Masquerade Mist broke the comfortable silence with an accompanying belly-rumble.

“Me too.” Stargaze agreed with the complaining colt, touching his own centre with a hoof.

“I think you'll live.” The formerly homeless pony awkwardly laughed at the clueless recruits, adjusting her mane as to not appear bothered.

“I wish they'd hurry up.” A monotone Thunder added to the negativity.

“Stand back fillies, you're in my spot.” Shining armour, from nowhere appeared next to the four students, three of whom immediately retreated. The last filly, Haze Etcher stood her ground, giving the captain a hard glare.

“I thought you would be with Cadence.” Haze called out her 'teacher'.

“She's not getting here until next week.” The academy leader foresaw his effort to 'cut in' on Haze as futile and took the space separating Haze from her friends. Shining could have just walked in, but wanted to be around somepony he actually knew.

After the conclusion of a delicious breakfast comprised of stacks of waffles and fruit salads, ponies went their separate ways. Thunder Dasher took to the basketball court along with a herds-worth of pegasi, Stargaze left for the Dawn company lounge, Masquerade searched for a drum-kit within the music rooms and Haze followed Shining Armour to the 'Officer's Club.' Companies were sticking together and wandering the Academy grounds, avoiding their competitors and talking to ponies without prior introduction just because they were in the same 'team'.

The day was blessed with warm and sunny weather, a rarity in the Everfree unless directly tampered with. In the barren rolling hills and forests, birds could be heard chirping and wild animals were easily seen grazing in the shorter grass. Shining’s academy was fortunately in a safe area, requiring no fencing or any over the top protection from the Everfree horrors. If a student wanted to, on a sunday, they could easily just take a long walk. There was simply no better place to build the academy.