The New Recruit

Ace was feeling a bit nervous as the other cadets poked and prodded at him. Mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically, as well. Spitfire had told him to make friends, but they weren't making it easy.

"How do you manage to fly with no wings?"

"You'd better hope you don't fall off the side."

"Who'd you have to pay off in order to be accepted to the academy?"

"Seriously, what's your plan?"

The questions were all coming too fast, and they had him at a severe disadvantage. Not only did they all know each other, and all know the room, but they were making assumptions and just passing it off as fact. He'd had no time to prepare for all of their questions, he was still overwhelmed from the tour, and there was only one of him. He'd even tried retreating into his bunk, and they'd followed him in, blocking off any escape.

"Ease up on him, boys," came the voice of the one pony that wasn't crowding him. "If he hasn't answered any of your questions yet, it's because you're not letting him breathe. Back to your bunks."

Two of the four backed off, the other two just moving a bit closer. "So, how'd you do it?" the white one asked. "Had your daddy pay off the captain? Blackmail?"

"Seriously, how are you even here?" asked the red one. "You obviously don't belong here."

There was a loud thump behind them, and the largest pegasus of the group yanked the red one out of Ace's bunk. "Leave him be, I said!"

The white one glared at the big one, then turned and smirked at Ace before disembarking the bed.

"Don't take it personally," sighed the large one, sitting at the edge of the bed and reaching in. "Gentle Giant. You?"

"A-Ace of Clubs."

"Mind if I just call you Ace? You can call me Gent."

Ace nodded. "You can call me Ace..."

"So, listen up, Ace. We're all very interested in your background. I have to be up early tomorrow, so I was hoping to hit the hay early. You're not going to stand in the way of that, are you?"

Ace shook his head.

"So, here's what's going to happen. Bubble Up is going to take you to dinner in the cafeteria. The rest of the boys are staying here until you come back, and then they're going to go eat."

"Since when do you decide when we eat?!" barked the red one.

"Since you decided to act like animals. Now, hush." Gent turned back to Ace. "Once you return, you can talk quietly with Bub. Quietly. I will be going to bed. You can finish up and go to bed yourself after, and the other boys won't bother you for the rest of the night. Bub will relay that information to us during training. Tonight, you are to be quiet, though. Do I make myself clear?"

Ace nodded.

"Good. Go with Bub."

Ace didn't know which one was Bubble Up, but he had to assume it was the one that joined him at the door. He was small and blue, with yellow-green hair. He was one that had backed off. "Sorry about that," he said as soon as the door was closed. "I didn't mean to crowd you like we did."

"It's fine," sighed Ace. "I'm just a little nervous right now..."

"Yeah, most recruits don't show up a month early. We still have two weeks before we finish, and then there's administrative procedures and cleaning up our stuff and ceremonial proceedings. And hells, you're an earth pony! I'm having a conversation with an earth pony right now!"

"I mean, earth ponies are everywhere..."

"Not up here at the academy. Pegasi as far as the eye can see. Alicorns from time to time, and the occasional unicorn with a cloud walking spell. Never seen an earth pony this high up."

Ace nodded. "It's weird, I know. I'm weird. I wanted to be a Wonderbolt since I was a colt. Everypony kept telling me it was stupid to have such a dream. Maybe it is. Maybe I'm stupid. But I'm still going to try."

"That's either brave or stupid," agreed Bub. "Let me know if you find out which." They arrived in the cafeteria and Bub pulled out his ID badge, then stopped. "You don't have an ID yet, do you?"

Ace shook his head. "I've only been here for a few hours."

"It's fine. You'll pay me back." He proceeded to load up two trays with food; one for himself and one for Ace, scanning his ID at the end of the line to charge his account. "Your ID is attached to your uniform. Rather, it is most of the time. When you wash your uniform, you take the badge off. It's how you pay for food, how you enter the library, the classrooms, the showers, the laundry, et cetera. I didn't know where the laundry room was for the first two weeks, so I didn't wash my uniform, and Soarin came and yelled at me for not doing my laundry. Meanwhile, I'd been hoof-washing my uniform in the bathroom sink."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Tomorrow, you need to go to administration and ask about that, so you can start grabbing your own meals."

They sat down and started eating. "Thanks again for doing this for me. I definitely needed the help."

"Hey, no worries, kid... So, uh... How'd you make it all the way up here?"

Ace looked up from his biscuit. "You didn't see? I felt like everypony was watching today."

Bub shook his head. "Nah. I knew something was going down, but I just kept working. I'm not prime Wonderbolt material. I'm a janitor. But I'm working on becoming part of the academy maintenance crew. Barring that, I'm sure my graduation from the academy will put me leagues ahead at the weather factory. How about you?"

Ace snorted. "You know, maintenance crew doesn't sound too bad. Personally, I'd like to be a cook here in the kitchens, if I can't be an actual Wonderbolt, but I don't think I'm ever going to stop trying."

"You didn't answer my question, though. How did you make it up here? Weather balloon?"

"Oh, yeah, right. Nothing so crude as that. I hopped a cloud and made it carry me up."

"How'd you do that? I thought earth ponies couldn't harness clouds?"

"I think it's more along the lines of "we can't reach them to practice." And, well, it was foggy this morning, so I gathered up a bunch of it until I could ride it and started climbing. Didn't stop until I was detained."