Frozen Through the Ages

"This was a terrible idea." The laughter surrounding me did not make it any more right. I took a deep breath, hoof planted so hard against my face I'd have a bruise later as the newest recruit and trainee of the Night House. I had expected training, wing-ups, and even mundane chores no pony else wanted to do. I did not expect this.

"No, no, it was not," Levvy said between howls of laughter. She was not the only one. Freya was almost completely submerged in the ground in her attempts to roll on the floor. Private Distant Point was even worse.

"Didn't Sergeant Foresight say we would not be doing this?" I asked.

Levvy nodded. "Something like that."

"I hate you all."

Corporal Night Glider was, at this very moment, very angry. I would suspect she'd be beet red if she wasn't frozen up to her goldenrod flank in ice. My ice, ice I was tasked to use to freeze an average everyday dummy. The ice shimmered in the night air, the blue bright enough to glow faintly. It accented the windswept pale, nearly gray-blue mane of its captive.

"How did you even convince her to come running out like that?" I asked.

Point waved a hoof wildly. "Said, mail…" Distant Point offered several hiccups between words. The mare cried for Faust's sake. "...She was so, so, easy."

I'd been mid-cast when, like a bat out of hell, pun intended, the corporal sailed through the open backdoor. Neither she nor I could stop in time. Thus, I'd captured Night Glider and a pair of soon-to-be-dead privates.

"I will end you, Distant Point, you traitor." Glider shook in place.

"If I let you out, will you accept an apology and promise not to kill me?" I asked.

The laughter stopped. Well, aside from Freya. She'd just vanished completely. She was very well likely still laughing. Night Glider stopped shaking. A hoof landed on my withers with authority. I looked to Levvy, whose face was stone solemn.

"That's a terrible idea, Colt," she said. Her silver eyes promised a fate most foul indeed. It made my decision all the easier.

I shrugged and turned back to Night Glider. She was now smiling. The fire in her orange eyes would have reduced an avalanche to vapor. I squinted and was also almost certain the ice was sweating bullets—the same ice that had taken a bonfire to melt days before.

"That sounds fair," Glider answered. She enunciated each word with sharp intensity, her eyes scanning each of her comrades slowly.

"Colt, don't you dare," Distant Point warned. If her coat wasn’t already white, I had a feeling it would have been now. The wild mare looked like a cornered beast. Well. She looked that way before, regardless.

She was too late. I tapped my hoof to the ice trail, leading a path straight to my senior officer. It was the duty of any good soldier to follow the chain of command. The ice slushed under the slightest touch and dominoed all the way back to Night Glider, who had begun to shake again. The second, the ice pooled around her. Her wings were wide, and both Levvy and Point were already airborne. I snapped a sharp salute in their honor.

"Good, Colt," Glider shouted as she flew by.

"Those three are idiots."

Clean Dossier had chosen this moment to join the rest of us behind the main building. She gave everypony a single long, amber-eyed look. Her pale purple wings twitched her disapproval. The Night House had a surprisingly robust training area in a cordoned-off yard behind the unsightly block of stone I now work at. Dummies, both on and off the ground, a weapon rack of wooden training swords and spears, and a bejeweled totem in the far back. Levvy had said it was some sort of magic defense training. I tried my best not to get too close. No telling what that thing could do.

"As I recall, you seemed too happy to play along last night."

Dossy scoffed. "Pranks and banter are one thing. Setting up your immediate senior to be frozen solid by a foal is a step too far."

I smirked and followed the wave through the overcast night sky. The three would have to fix that, no doubt. Well, the two with our corporal enjoying the view. Dossy followed my view and huffed to herself.

"What is next on my training schedule? I asked, eyes never wavering from the hole in the clouds. What a way to start the night. I'd managed to sleep just shy of noon. I'll try harder today. Two or three in the afternoon, at least. I'd decided, during lunch, my breakfast of oranges and oats, that I'd save a couple of hours tomorrow to see what the others had free in the following days and report what night guarding was like.

"Filing and definitions." My smirk disappeared, only for Dossy to steal it for herself. I hated school, or Hal did. Formal education in Bogwood is pretty sparse. Outside of the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, the rest was left to the community—that and our herd. Father made sure I knew more about the port than any nonsailor would even need to know. That and Homebrew. She was nice enough to fill in some less fish-related common sense.

"Great." I took a deep breath and turned to the still-open door inside. "Lead the way, ma'am." Dossy's smirk faltered. All is fair in war, they say.

"Don't call me that." Private Dossier straightened up, sniffed, and pointed me to the door. "Hop to it, cadet." I snapped a crisp, wavering salute. And marched my way back into the Night House, Dossier right behind me.

At some point last night, I had been given a small space to call my own in the main office. A stool and a makeshift table of a turned-over cabinet sat beside Clean Dossier's desk. She'd been assigned to lead my tutelage. I couldn't argue with the choice, and after the freezing prank, she could not either.

The Sergeant had left only minutes after I'd gotten in. He'd taken my signed forms, read them over, and then tossed me to the wolves. The others had been all too happy to welcome me into the fold. Night Glider had offered a second, less rushed introduction, and the others were pleasant enough. That was around two hours ago. Things hadn't settled much.

No sooner had I taken a seat than my oh-so glorious teacher plopped down a stack of papers a hoof thick in front of me. I blanched, eyes wide, and Dossy had to cover her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle a laugh. I had no idea what was so funny, but oh, how I dreaded what would follow.

"To start, it is important that you are aware of the basic laws that are enforced by the Night Guard and what laws are relegated to Bogwood itself," Dossy said, smacking the pile of papers with a vengeance. "In truth, it isn't as bad as it looks, and a lot of it will be irrelevant in night-to-night situations. But knowing will keep you out of trouble if any less obvious laws are broken. Following me, Glacial?"

A shudder ran down my spine as I eyed up the pile once more. "Yes, I think so. It's better to know now than to not know later."

The private slapped the pile again. "Exactly."

That said, All that was left to do was to get it over with. To which Dossier was all too happy to leave me to do. As the paper junky, she had a pile almost three times thicker that she herself was having to go through. The difference is that she liked this kind of soul-destroying tediousness. I was not of the same mind.

What followed was the longest session of reading asinine legalese I've ever had the forsaken misfortune to experience. Just making it through the six-page content summary was enough to jellify my brain. What was worse was how bad the hoof and/or horn writing was. It only seemed to get worse with each paragraph. I hoped that whoever did write this was fired and/or barred from ever getting such responsibilities again.

The summarization of what I could make out boiled down to a very robust explanation of nothing in general. Oh yes, it did detail the formal system of inquiry and the laws that shaped it. The common ones were all there: no stealing, killing, or public intimate acts. I was surprised I was even allowed to read that one. It feels like the type of detail an adult would want to scratch out.

Yes, there it was, though I suppose if I were to enforce the laws and such correctly, leaving out such things might be inappropriate. It wasn't like I didn't know how such acts worked anyway. I was fortunate that such things had no biological hold on my foal anatomy. I'd have been distraught if such knowledge had a more noticeable reaction. Then, there were laws on money and its facets, such as stealing, bribery, and forgery. Page after page of common sense and whataboutisms. Now, that was not to say I or Hal knew every law that popped up. For instance, laws on 'No Fly' zones and weather manipulation did at least catch my eye. On a technicality, my talent could have fallen squarely into such bureaucratic fines and trouble.

By that point, the backdoor was nearly ripped from its hinges. The strain on the wood and iron protests was enough to press my ears taut against my skull, and my forehooves wrapped tightly in an attempt to dull the shriek and scraping. The sounds were followed swiftly by both Levvy and Distant Point. Neither looked very happy. It turned out the prank was not worth it. It had been over two hours since they'd flown off at that time. The lathering foam of sweat and matted fur showed it had not been an enjoyable two hours either.

The slam of the door closing had me leap at least two hooves off my stool; even Dossier was startled and looked about in a confused daze. She'd been so consumed by her reading that I was surprised she reacted at all. She'd even doubled my own stack of finished reading at the same time. Which was all the more impressive since she had to stop every other page to do write-ups on whatever she was reading. The stack of notes and such was nearly as large as the stack of finished content. I'd taken a few notes myself, but even with those, that was barely three pages to contend with her dozens.

"Look alive, ladies."

Following the door being shut, a very satisfied Night Glider trotted into the office. She looked among all present and nodded to Dossier, who seemed otherwise nonplussed by the results of the corporal's earlier ire.

"How is the training going?" Glider asked.

Dossier pointed a purple hoof over to me and my cluttered desk. I shrugged in return. "He's been doing fine, from what I can tell. A few questions: the flight laws seemed to baffle the colt, but nothing too bad. A bright foal that one, not a single whine or complaint, passed the initial dread. He reminds me of a few…" Dossier's words petered off. The initial mind surprise to a dull murmur. "... Wherever they are."

The rest of the room followed Dossier's example. Even the satisfaction Glider had been radiating had faded away. There was an air of dread, like the feeling right before you threw up. The knowledge that what followed would not be pleasant and would most likely not be the last time it'd happen made my skin crawl.

"Gee, way to dredge up the past," Freya said. She'd taken to pony watching or watching for ponies, either really from the nearby window. But, seeing the lull in my own monotonous task and the total life-sucking melancholy, she had to, of course, give her two bits. I offered a slow hiss in her direction. She either ignored it or was too concerned with eyeing up the others to notice.

"Sorry, Colt, didn't mean to leech the room dry," Glider said. She wasn't even looking in my direction. Her eyes were glued to the wall between Dossier and me.

"The tension in here could smother a bear." Freya waved a hoof in front of Levvy, who'd made it to the door back to the reception area before the unspoken reminiscence had struck. She had her back to the office, but even still, the way her wings dragged on the floor was proof enough that she'd heard every word.

"I get it, really. It hurts, right like you can't breathe like every memory is a chain pulling you down. It's always there, even when you pretend it's not." I added a rueful smile, only to shrink back when all heads snapped to me.

"What the hay, colt. Who's been feeding you all that? A foal like you shouldn't have that running about your head," Glider said. She was staring at me, a mix of concern and sorrow. A look mirrored by the others who followed her example.

"Glacial, is your sire okay?" Dossier asked.

"He's not wrong, though," Distant Point mused.

"Are any of us okay?" I asked.

"Wrong question," Freya warned.

Right before I was pulled into a hug, I had neither expected nor, for the most part, needed. I mean, a hug is a hug, and all hugs are nice, but I had not expected tonight to have myself nearly crushed in Wave Gluder's hooves.

"Huh?" That was all I got out of my struggle to breathe.

"See, completely wrong question," Freya said and giggled.

"You're not alone, Colt; we all miss them, your dam included."

When Glider's grip loosened, I squirmed my way free of her hold. I would have preferred to keep reading about tax law at this point. I coughed into a hoof and gave the best deadpan stare I could. "I'm not that frail, you know? I miss Dam, but it isn't like she's dead. She's fine. Most of them are fine, right? You get letters, right, Corporal?"

Night Glider nodded. "Every so often. It helps."

"So, maybe one day, they'll come back. But mourning them seems a bit. Defeatist, isn't it? We have to be strong so they can all come home one day."

I was playing with fire, acting unlike any normal foal. I knew that before I even opened my mouth. It was aggravating, being treated like I was too dumb to see the writing on the wall. There was a chance Dam was gone, a chance they would never come back. But then there was this spike that plunged deep into my mind, a stubborn refusal to be talked down to. Hal wouldn't allow it, even if Glacial did want to scream, to let it all out.

The mares were still eying me warily. Glider looked a bit embarrassed, eyes unable to meet mine directly, a hoof idly scratching at an ear. Levvy had managed a snort when I'd gotten free, but the rest were deathly silent otherwise.

"The colt is right; we can't go chiseling tombstones yet. What kind of example does that set?" Distant Point said. She nodded at me with a brave face, except for her eyes. She was searching for something, delving as deep into my head as she could get. Her name was a little too literal for my liking.

"The letters are a lifeline, proof there is still hope," Glider said. Her words sounded recited like she had spent hours saying them to a mirror. It left a lump in my gut. They might be alive, but that didn't mean they were living well. The face of my dam flashed through my head.

"So, how about a patrol? I think the cadet could use a break," Levvy said. She eyed Night Glider, who sagged in surrender.

"Might be a good idea. Some ponies and their games have us a few hours behind. So, hop to it, ladies. Glacial, you and Levvy can take a quick flight around the town and get you used to the routine. Even if she should be cleaning the cells with a fork." Glider pointed to Levvy and squinted so hard her eyes might as well have been shut.

"I could use the practice. I don't get to fly too much. The elders get mad if I'm in town alone. Bunch of nags."

That earned a surprised snort from Glider and a chuckle from the others. I offered an innocent stare and shrug. Then, I trotted over to Levvy and waved towards the door.

"You're a strange one, you know that?" Levvy asked.

I nodded. "Sure do."

"Good, we're all strange around here," Levvy said with a wink. She began walking, and I followed. I wouldn't argue with my seniors on that point. Hay, the whole town was a bit odd. Now, if only somepony could relate to my own brand of crazy.

"So, Corporal Glider said there is a flight routine?" I asked no sooner than the Night House's door shut behind us.

"Yeah, there are rules. I'm sure they're in that pile Dossy gave ya. They're not that hard once you get used to them,' I promise." Levvy nudged me, maroon wings flaring wide. She took one heavy flap and hovered a few hooves off the ground.

I rolled my eyes and joined her. Levvy had an impressive wingspan, similar to Sire's actually. They were a bit longer than needed, but that meant her gliding and maintaining speeds would come easier. That's what Sire said when we'd go flying. Mine, on the other hoof, was barely hitting the typical length for a colt my size and age.

"Let's see how you can keep up, little colt. Need to know what type of flier ya are. Helps put everypony on the right routes and with the right partner."

We'd made our way up and out; we were maybe four or five stories up now. The night air was rejuvenating, and the stars danced in the skies above. The moon was caught under a light cloud cover. In all, it was a night to revel in.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yeah, since we're such a small group we can't afford to send ponies out on patrols they're not suited for. A waste of time, it is. So, we all have our specialty. I do high altitude sweeps, the only mare in the squad with the wing power for it."

Levvy flexed her wings, face fraught with pride. A pride she most likely deserved. Thestral wings weren't terribly different from pegasi ones. The lack of feathers and shape were the only biological differences. The muscles and structure were similar enough that they were treated the same medically. The leathery membrane meant the wings were light and flexible, designed for aerobatics and snap motions. Meanwhile, feathers allowed for less wasted stamina and higher top speeds. Then there were ponies like Levvy, who made up for the difference when put side by side with the average pegasus.

"So, let's do a quick review of the flight rules, and then we'll see just what kind of flier the Night Guard's one and only pegasus is."

"Now I'm some sort of sideshow attraction, am I? The Night House now presents the one pegasus dumb enough to play night guard," I said. I waved my hooves widely and added a dramatic oohing to the end. Levvy cackled and nodded along with my dramatics.

"That's right, little pegasus, you sure are, and we like ya better for it."

"Ah, look at you two bonding."

My eyes swung to my free side. Freya glided along beside me. She was merrily smiling away, casting a brighter white in night's shadows. I tutted and chose to ignore her. No time for tulpa taunting tonight.

"Now, the first rule of flight sweeps."

So, Leevy began the job breakdown. As she'd said, it was a bit peculiar but not as bad as the jargon in Dossy's write-out. That mare needed to relax on her multisyllabic words and constant abuse of synonyms. It was clear she didn't get enough chances to show off. Levvy's own explanation sounded far less robotic.

The basic rules were simple. One, no sweep can consist of less than two active guards. An exception may be made for training purposes, but even still, it should not become common practice. That made sense. If a real emergency came up and there were multiple threats, having only one guard and a trainee would be trouble.

Two routes are mapped out and should be followed accordingly. This left less chance of getting lost, or for those best suited to certain types of patrols don't get sent out on more difficult or draining flights. That fits what Levvy had mentioned prior. I had a feeling high-altitude flights weren't my preference. Levvy had kept the pace manageable, but my wings were already starting to ache even this early into the flight. Gelding relied on fine muscle control and managing mind sheer and currents. My smaller wings, even accounting for my age, were barely forcing their way through the buffeting. That certainly wasn't helped by my lack of practice. Something that I'm sure wouldn't remain an excuse for long.

Three would be more in line with Dossy's own instructions: the flight laws and ownership of flight space. It turns out that just as an earth pony might purchase acres of land, pegasus would purchase the airspace around their cloud homes. I'd never really thought about that part. The fact that cloud homes could and did move about meant the space was always relative to the clouds themselves and spread out as a sphere from the home itself.

Those three were the short-form ones Levvy thought were worth recalling readily. The rest would come in time and become second nature as I went out on more flights. Flights I'd need to train up for. I became a wheezing, sore mess by the time we made it back to the Night House. The flight hadn't even been an entire patrol.

"You weren't kidding, cadet. You look ready to drop."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Need more practice," I said between gasps. I had to wonder if my split lineage was making things worse or better. I wondered what I'd feel like now if I'd been born thestral or more thestral than I was.

"Good news then," Levvy said, throwing the Night House door wide. "You're in the right place for plenty." Her overly red self was jarring when we entered the lowlight domain of the thestrals. That and her Grogar-may-care attitude.

"Poor Glacie, you really need to flap those back flappers of yours more often," Freya said, wagging a hoof in mock dismissal.

"Ah, your back."

Levvy and I walked into a waiting Foresight. With a mug in his hoof, he waved in our direction. "Glider mentioned our newest member was out on their first night flight." The smile on his face gave away just how much he'd heard when Levvy and I were outside. Curse thestrals and their immaculate hearing—another trait I wished I had.

"He did just fine for his first time. Not a single complaint. He's got the heart of a fighter this one," Levvy said, patting a maroon hoof hard into my back.

"Oh, well, I'm glad to hear we have a protege on our hooves," Foresight took a long draft of his beverage of choice. "We'll need to train him all the harder for it. No, time for favoritism or idle hooves here." He took a second deeper drink.

"Yessir, we'll give him a good one," Levvy said, nodding along with the sergeant.

"Glider also mentioned a freezing incident," Foresight said, hiding a grin behind his mug. Levvy froze in place in response. I had to hide a growing smile of mine in response.

I coughed into a hoof. "It seems there was some sort of mailing issue, sir."

"Oh?"

I waved a hoof in the direction of the training grounds. "Corporal Glider came barreling through the yard right as I went to freeze a target. The others wanted an example of what I could do, you see. The poor corporal never saw it coming." I dipped my head in shame.

"Up to her flanks, I believe she said," Foresight asked. His gaze drifted from me to Levvy. She gulped and shifted from hoof to hoof. Her blood-red mane made an escape attempt as the poor corporal was caught literally red hoofed

"That's right," Levvy confirmed.

"I did apologize, of course," I added, drawing the pair's attention.

"Night Glider said as much. You were not the ones she took Umbrage with. Private Point is currently cleaning the cells. So, I made sure to save the troughs out back for our other jokester. Of which, should be clean enough to eat from." Foresight motioned with his cup to the office door. "Isn't that right, Corporal Levvy?"

"Aye, sir," Levvy said, snapping a salute before trotting off to whatever trough duty entailed. I doubted it was any fun.

As soon as Levvy was gone, Foresight turned and gave me a once-over. He tutted and seemed to lose himself in thought. It left me to consider what I knew was a certainty moving forward. Physical training, flight training, book learning, and practical use. It felt like any physically taxing job. In such ruminations, Hal's memories stirred. The idea of sending children off to war, centuries of youth being an expendable pool of lives to waste. It left me sour; Equestria wasn't prone to many wars, many skirmishes, and personal battles, but country-spanning fights for survival were minimal. If you don't count incidents like Discord, that was its own type of conflict. That left me wondering if Equestria was due for a civil war of its own. A war of day and night, one brought on not by an alicorn but by the paranoia of change and pointed hooves.

"You okay, Glacial?"

I snapped back to reality. Foresight and kneeled to meet at eye level. His amber eyes bore into mine as I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny. "I'm fine."

Foresight pulled back, but his dull look remained. "Your face disagrees."

"Just lost in thought, sir."

"A colt your age should not be thinking about things that do that to your face." Foresight jabbed a navy hoof into my forehead, causing me to stumble back. "It is chilling."

I rubbed a hoof to the spot on my head. Foresight had poked; I leered up at the stallion. "Was that a pun, sir?" I asked.

Foresight blanched, nearly tossing his mug over his shoulder. The jaded stare fell away to bemused confusion.

"Is that really the first thing that stuck inside that strange little head of yours, Colt?"

I gave a wide, toothy grin. "Was there something else worth recalling, sir?" I extended the last word for several seconds, my smile disappearing the instant the last syllable faded into silence. Foresight turned around and walked away. A wise choice.

"No, no, there was not," Freya said. She'd taken to lounging on the reception desk, chin resting on bridged forehooves.

"Right, well, I believe somepony has more reading to do. Hop to it, Colt, don't keep Dossy waiting."

"Sir, don't encourage the cadet to use that word. I do not consent," Private First Class Clean Dossier said, banging her hooves into the desk to emphasize her point. Her gray curls bounced in agreement. A point the sergeant ignored with merciless precision as he whistled his way back to his office.

I rolled my eyes but otherwise complied. All that boring jargon wasn't going to dump itself into the void that was in my mind. Freya followed, floating overhead, smiling and waving to each other guard, to their unbeknownst efforts. Well, Freya and Night Glider, the others were preoccupied, as Foresight had made clear.

"It's not that bad, Private Dossier, ma'am," I said as I made myself as comfortable as possible on the old stool, which I'd be calling mine for the foreseeable future.

"Don't play coy, Colt. You should show your seniors more respect."

"Don't listen to her; she loves all of us, and she knows it," Glider said from her desk across the room.

Though Dossy humphed in response, the hint of a smile tugged at her cheeks. The whole group of guards gave off familiar vibes. One night in, they'd already thrown away any decorum a guard was expected to show in public anyway. In private, those aspirations were disregarded with reckless abandon. It was nice. I shifted my weight in my seat and looked back to the spot I'd stopped at earlier that night, and I couldn't recall anything about its meaning. I'd have to restart from the last page break. I sneered in bored contempt.

So the night went, wrought with endless terms and phrases, many of which I was doubtful many of which were ever brought up. Levvy and Distant Point eventually rejoined the office. Night Glider went on patrol as soon as the punishments were settled. Distant Point followed after Glider's return.

By the time dawn approached, I could barely keep my eyes open. I still planned on finding the others tomorrow, or was it today? At this point, the anxiety of telling them about Hal or the rest did not sit well in my gut. But it'd sit even worse if I let those thoughts linger.

I'd need to tell Father sometime soon as well. Freya certainly wouldn't let the secrets go hidden forever. Something was disconcerting about the way she spoke on unaired thoughts or ideas. She seemed adamant about hearing every last one.

"Glacial."

I looked blearily up from the paper stack I'd stopped making heads or tails nearly an hour before. Foresight cocked a gray brow; I matched him with my own, which was left abandoned behind a mouth-wrenching yawn.

"Yessir?" I asked. I rubbed a bit of the sleep from my eyes. Foresight's brow has yet to fall back in place.

"I believe it is time for a certain colt to go home."

My gaze drifted to the window. The morning sun basked the room in a gentle glow. The others all seemed ready for bed themselves. The Day Guard is already in town or preparing to do so.

"Levvy."

The blur of red jolted up on her hooves. I cracked a smile as she looked about like a lost foal in the market. "Sir?"

"Could you please see our cadet home? Then, you are dismissed, you both look ready to drop," Foresight said.

Levvy nodded along. "My bed, she calls, sir."

Foresight rolled his eyes and jabbed me in Levvy's direction. "Well, you heard the mare. You both have places to be."

The sergeant wasn't wrong. The thought of this afternoon's talks was daunting, but the idea I might pass out in the middle of town was even more so. Levvy was already at the front door before I could even get my hooves under myself properly. Glider offered a lazy wave as I left. If the drool in the corner of Distant's mouth was any indication, she was already out cold.

"Good day, little colt," Dossy said, never even looking up from whatever she was currently reading. Her dedication was admirable if nothing else.

"Sleep well," I said over my shoulder.

I walked into the morning light. The walk itself was a hazy blur, but the last real thing I remembered was plopping into bed. Then the rain came, and I was so very cold, lost in the weaving alleys of a city I could not recall the name of. There was only me, the rain, and the distant howls of a dog behind me.

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