The Few, The Proud

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Chapter 1

The train lurched to a halt. Shining Armour levitated his bag from the rack above him. Behind him he could hear the soft tears of parents who accompanied their foals, and from some of his fellow cadets as well. Two hours since he had waved goodbye to his family, the weight of how much he missed them hit hard.

Well, he thought, I’m here.

His family had seen him off from the station. It had been pandemonium, as cadets scrambled aboard and families struggled to part. His mother had her hoof on Twilight to keep her from running along the platform as the train left the station. Shining had waved from the train. As Canterlot receded from view, and the Equestrian countryside sped past, he realized for the first time he was committed in a way he had not been in his entire life. His eyes were itchy from his country allergies. That was his story and he was sticking with it.

Hidalgo Springs’ railway station was small and today it was overwhelmed. Dozens of blue coated ponies, pegasi and unicorns being the majority, swarmed the platform. Some senior members of the academy were present, studying the new arrivals.They barked at the new arrivals to go here, wait and tried to keep up with the swarm. In a couple of years Shining would be one of them, trying to keep his brood in line. It was like trying to herd chickens during an earthquake.

For the first time Shining was all by himself. It was a very strange feeling. Naturally, anxiety gnawed within his chest. A tiny fire of pride was burning as well, the two emotions not strong enough to overwhelm each other. This was not what he expected to feel at this moment. He thought he would feel prouder.

Maybe he had used up his pride in the weeks and days before he arrived. Those days were a swirl of activity: catching up with this or that of bureaucratic nonsense, being fitted for his uniform. He remembered modeling it for his parents, Twilight, and, of course, Cadence.

Cadence, who laughed when she first saw him dressed up in it. Unfortunately her duties and schooling kept her from bidding him a fond farewell. He saw her last the day before he left. They enjoyed a pleasant walk through the castle gardens, and she promised to write him regularly. It would be eight weeks before they saw each other again.

The reminder immediately cheered him. When he got back she would be doubly proud to see him again. He gave a goofy smile.

He only noticed the sophomore cadet after half a minute of standing there. My, those were some large eyes.

“Why hello there,” the sophomore said. He was a cream coloured unicorn, his uniform a brighter shade of blue than Shining’s.

“H…hello.”

“I’m your section leader, your proctor, and as of today your new best friend. Name?”

“Shining Armour.”

The sophomore manipulated a scroll and a quill and slashed Shining’s name off of it. He grumbled at having received all the latecomers and airheads.

“You were supposed to immediately identify yourself to the formation leader, you may recall.”

“Sorry.”

The sophomore grunted. Shining never wanted to hear that grunt ever again.

“I’ll do better next time…sir.”

The sophomore stopped, and mentally counted to three very slowly. Shining dreaded what would happen when he
stopped.

“Thundering Hearts,” he patiently explained. “My name is upper cadet Thundering Hearts.”

“Good to know.” Shining smiled, which did not appear to please Thundering Hearts.

“We’re moving.” The sophomore’s voice was gentle and soft, which only underscored both the authority of his command and the unfortunate fact Shining was trying his limited patience. With a gesture of his head he indicated the fellow cadets being arranged in formation.

“Oh,” Shining said. Immediately he began to telekinetically raise his bag.

The sophomore placed a gentle but firm hoof on his bag. Just like a tree that bent in the wind but ultimately was too stubborn to fall over. “We’re going to be doing this non-magic, you may recall. Builds character.”

“Yes, yes of course.”

Shining gripped the bag with his mouth and threw it over his shoulder.
“Well?”

“Sorry?” Shining asked.

The sophomore leaned in and whispered into Shining’s ear: “Move.”

At a more forceful trot Shining began to join the rest of the throng. It was a more aggressive trot than Shining realized. Soon he was well within the group, shuffling and moaning as one as the trek from the academy turned from pleasant work to unacceptable ordeal.

Eight weeks, he reminded himself. Eight years would pass more quickly.

“Formation…move!”

With one jerking movement the cadets began to stagger towards the academy. Proctors struggled to keep the formation reasonably fluid. The ponies struggled to remember their time in the cadets, feeling like the pressure had suddenly doubled without warning.

Shining was making good time, he felt.

“Hey pretty boy! Move!”

An annoyed looking earth pony was directly behind Shining, his expression growing more fierce. “Mind picking up your hooves a little?”

“We’re supposed to be at a…”

The earth pony snorted. He pulled ahead at a good pace, savouring the ease which Shining struggled to match. He seemed to enjoy meeting or exceeding Shining’s pace. Two could play at that game. Shining met his pace, stride for stride. The earth pony didn’t quite know what to think then.

Shining smiled. He sure showed him.

The earth pony’s expression had not changed. Unlike the majority of these ponies, he had pulled hard marches in the San Palomino with a full pack.

The gates of the academy were wide open. A stage was prepared before the entrance to the academy. One banner, prepared by old cadets clearly, straddled the gates: CELESTIA CAN’T SAVE YOU NOW.

Chancellor Striking Iron adjusted his spectacles. The courtyard was full of about a hundred incoming ponies with a smattering of their families. The sun was overhead and Dean High Tower was finishing his speech. He arranged the notes for his speech. Were the letters large enough for him to see? He could remember some of the speeches he used to give: this wouldn’t be that hard.

“Welcome, our newest class of the Royal Equestrian Guard College.”

Pride began to outwrestle anxiety in Shining’s heart. It was like getting his cutie mark all over again. Graduation Day would feel like being invested as Prince of Equestria.

“Welcome, to those who have joined straight from active service----”

Rock Hard puffed his chest out triumphantly.

“And for those who participated in the guard cadets.”

The chancellor took a sip of water. He forgot for a moment a paragraph of his speech so he decided to improvise. Perhaps a helpful anecdote would suffice.

“In battle,” wheezed the chancellor, “you will employ these lessons, and die by them as you have lives by them.”

The cadets began to through the periphery of their eyes at each other. They were hearing the same thing, right?

“He’s a little past his prime,” the unicorn to Shining’s right said.

“Tell me about it.”

Shining’s acceptance letter had been fourteen pages long, much of it spent arguing the tactics of the Changeling incursion, with his acceptance itself being a paragraph long and written in different handwriting.

“Shining Armour.”

“Luminous Fog.”

“Forgive me for not offering a hoof bump.”

“Apologies accepted.”

One of the sophomores glared at them. Immediately their gaze focused on the stage as Striking Irons wildly gesticulated. Apparently he was re-enacting the brutal hoof-to-hoof combat that he had engaged in during the Changeling wars, which was somehow pertinent to his speech.

“Is he going to keep up with that?”

“This is nothing,” Shining whispered. “Apparently last year’s speech was a lot more…explicit.”

“But despite the death around you, despite the carnage….”

“Chancellor Iron,” interrupted Dean Tower.

“Your suffering will not be forgotten, your deaths will not go unforgotten.”

“Chancellor Iron.”

“Through your sacrifices in blood, Equestria….”

“Chancellor Iron?”

“Eh?”

“Your service is most commendable, and your tales of past adventures interesting, but the cadets would appreciate you sharing the history and the traditions of the academy.”

The applause was thunderous. Dean Tower was pleased that at least the digression hadn’t lasted too long this year and wasn’t as explicit as the last two. The cadets smiled, their tension melting away. So the cadets were marched off to the orientation.

“See you around.”

“Yeah, you too,” Shining said.

He headed to orientation after stowing his gear. He watched an earth pony, the same one who scolded him during the parade, dart past. Remember: you have to share this room. Privacy was now a treat. He sighed at the sudden realization that his time outside the academy gates was going to be strictly rationed. Like it or not, he was going to have to accept his new life.

Well, the food lived up to its reputation. Rock stirred it with a spoon. This stew was so bad it deserved to be endured. A test of character in its own right. All the new cadets were spread across the dining hall with the older cadets in their impenetrable groups. Some first years found companionship, others were still isolated.

“Can I sit here?”

Rock Hard looked up to see Shining Armour. He kept his tray suspended in the air. A friendly smile was on his face.

Rock shrugged. “Can’t stop you.”

“Thanks. Didn’t get the chance to introduce myself during the parade over. We room together, right?”

“Room 411?” Rock asked. He had thrown his bag in the room, only catching a glimpse of Shining as he went over to the dining hall. So he was saddled with the pretty boy. Thank you, fate.

Shining nodded. “Shining Armour.”

“Rock Hard.”

They did a hoof bump. It was a hard one.Shining took his first bite of the stew. He nearly retched.

“Like mud and glue,” Shining said. He rested his fork on the plate.

“Like home cooking.”

“I don’t know what kind of parents you had if you ate this regularly.”

Nor will you. Rock’s brother was probably the better cook, though he had been insistent on fresher ingredients that Rock had. Pricey, but worth it.

“Luminous!”

A unicorn was walking by with a tray. He smiled and slid in next to Shining.

“Who’s this?”

“Rock Hard,” Rock said before shovelling more food in his mouth.

“Luminous Fog. We met at the speech.”

“Delighted.”

The two made a mutual hoof bump.

“So,” Shining said, “Three new cadets, enjoying their first meal!”

For Celestia's sake! A couple of spoiled Canterlot dolts thinking they were tough. Drop them in the San Palomino, or threaten them with that awful fate, and we‘ll see, Rock thought.

“What made you decide upon the Guards?” Rock asked. Small talk would satisfy Shining a heck of a lot more than Rock. Even if it was hollow at least it killed the time.

“I’ve always felt I’ve belonged in the guard.” Shining Armour took a good look around the room. Strong wooden beams balanced a firm roof. For a moment he felt more at home than when he was at home. “I’ve admired the pride, the dignity, the dedication.”

“Every pony does. Not every pony has it was it takes to live up it.”

“True,” Shining said, “but I’ve never been afraid of standing up for my little sister when she got bullied.”

“What about Luminous here?” Rock asked.

“I’ve always admired the guards and, well, cutie mark and all that.”

Rock glanced at it.

“Nice,” he said. Glitzy as all heck.It looked like a diamond shaped like a shield.

“You know what it is?” Luminous asked. Rock and Shining shook their heads. “Topaz.”

“Topaz?” Rock asked. Shining seemed to recall Twilight mentioning something about Topaz at some point, though it was buried under the weight of everything else his sister had an interest in.

“Only thing harder than Topaz is Diamond,” Luminous said. “It means I can bear almost anything.”

“Interesting name to go with it,” Rock said. “I mean, Fog?”

“My parents had different aspirations, I think,” Luminous said. His mother had been a romantic, and she said (one afternoon following a particularly brutal teasing session at school) that it would be heraldic of a sensitive and romantic soul.

“Well,” Rock shrugged, “such are families, I guess.”

Shining noticed the patch on his shoulder which neither he nor Luminous had. Only students recruited from within the guard were permitted them as a reminder of their service.

“You were recruited from within the service?”

“36th Earth Pony, the Steel Spurs. Earth pony corps.”

“Where are you from?” asked Luminous.

“Manehattan.” No need to go into detail: all he needed to say was Manehattan.

“That city must nickel and dime you,” Luminous said. He remembered family vacations to the Big Orange. Thank goodness great-granddad struck that jewel vein! Those were fun times, even if luxury hotels were not always fun places for an energetic colt.

"You don’t know the half of it,” Rock said. The kid probably had someone to chew his own food for him. “And what about yourself?”

“I’m from Canterlot,” Luminous said.

Really? Rock thought. I thought you were from the moon. I simply had no idea.

“So why the guard?” asked Shining.

“I wanted out of the jewel trade, and to actually contribute something to Equestria.”

“That’s a good attitude,” Shining said.

“The higher I go,” Luminous said proudly, “the better.”

“Your parents must have been pleased.”

“Not at first,” Luminous admitted. “They accepted it, at least.”

Rock raised an eyebrow.

“They think that I’d be wasting my time. They didn’t think there would be a future within the guard.”

Rock held a sliver of hope for him.

“Well, how else does the ceremonial armour get all twinkly? It’s the ponies wearing them as much as the jewels!”

All the same, the Canterlot ponies. Every last one of them.

“You think you could make captain?” Rock asked.

“I’d like to,” Shining replied. He gave a solid nod; this wasn’t an errant wish. He seriously believed it. If he was of a less cynical constitution, Rock would too.

He did have a tiny blue streak of ribbon on his yellow sash. Awards won during his cadet service. Rock peered in close: Shining was certainly committed, and he had a couple of other ribbons for physical fitness, courage and…oral hygiene? Well, only in Canterlot, he supposed.

“You probably would,” Rock said.

Shining perked up at the endorsement. Being in active service may have given Rock a source of insight into his devotion and talents. Praise from him would have come from a discerning pony.

“You’re a unicorn, which helps a lot.”

“How so?”

“Anyone, really, with a horn could do. Its amazing you aren‘t captain right now.”

Shining’s brow wrinkled. “That’s glib.”

“We don’t do diplomacy in the 36th.” They also were very good at counter-teleportation and counter-telekinetic combat. Rock could have Shining’s horn off in ten seconds if he wanted to.

“Well, unicorns don’t go down easily,” Luminous.

“Death is immediate,” Rock said. He remembered lessons on fighting a unicorn: There are several ways to bludgeon, shatter, wrench or pummel a horn unaided. Bite, gouge, strangle, punch, stomp. Get them by the horn, dominate the fight.

“What made you choose the guard?” Luminous asked, polite enough to note that it was not typically a position sought
by earth ponies.

“I’m that good of a soldier,” Rock said. He didn’t have the colourful ribbons to dazzle them, but he made it here, and how many earth pony cadets did they see? Point made.

“Any thoughts about the guard?” Shining asked.

“There are aspects of Equestrian defence doctrine that, frankly, need to change. At some point,” Rock said, “we might find someone who won’t be troubled by the Elements of Harmony. We need to have soldiers ready for that possibility.”

Shining shook his head. “Impossible. Nobody’s stronger than the princess.”

“That we know of,” Rock said. “That may change.”

“I hope not,” Shining chuckled. Luminous smiled.

“Let’s agree to disagree,” Rock said.

Shining shrugged and turned his attention back to his meal. It passed, spoonful after wretched spoonful. Eventually he finished enough of it to satisfy his hunger until breakfast, which would come soon enough---and, he was warned, would be well earned.Shining telekinetically deposited the train on the used dishes rack. His first care package from home couldn’t arrive fast enough.

“See you back at the room.”

“See you later,” Rock said.
Rock was his roommate---fate was fickle like that. He lived up to his name, but maybe he could get through to him. It wasn’t like he could kill him or anything.

So ends the first day Shining thought. Who knew what would come tomorrow?

Deep in the mountains the chattering began. It started as whisper but built to a torrent. It had been quiet in the caverns for several years. Now the caverns echoed with gremlin song.

The gremlins massed around Mossy rock. After a long hibernation the Gremlins were beginning to stir. It had been a long time since they were last active---and the last time they had been active had been cut short unfairly soon.

Well, not this year.

This year was going to be the best year of mischief yet.

What’s more things were definitely going to be different. They weren’t going to go back to sleep when they were done. The king had found a way around hibernation and the pony’s tricks.

Chapter 2

The first week did not start off so well for Shining. Day two he took too long in the shower, and following his first surprise inspection Thundering Hearts made it clear this would be the first, last and only time Shining would keep his bed just like he kept it at home. Thundering had peered in so close their corneas had almost fused.

Getting up at the break of dawn was not something he would ever like. Morning exercises were not helped by the fact they were before breakfast. The less said of the twenty mile marches, the better. Aspiring to live up to the academy’s traditions in academics, athletics and leadership was not as simple as it seemed. Perhaps his cutie mark had deceived him. Perhaps this wasn’t where his talents lay.

Classes, at least, were a rhythm he could get into. Particularly magical and quasi-magical creatures of Equestria, starting with the gremlin. Having Twilight as a sister was almost an unfair advantage. He was pretty sure she had told him ages ago about every living thing in Equestria with a shred of magic in its veins.

The instructor walked down the rows of desks, lecturing as he went. He cycled through different slides of the gremlin, in captivity and in its natural habitat. They had covered the origins and historical distribution of gremlin populations within Equestria.

“Something should become obvious immediately,” the instructor said. Hidalgo Springs was smack dab into a thick blob of orange, representing the range of the western mountain gremlin. He would leave this fact unspoken for now.

Gremlins were roughly pony high, green and had a horn some of the time. Their magic capabilities were weak but they existed. Limited to low level telekinesis with conjectural instances of extreme short range teleportation demonstrated. Their only reason to exist, so far as anypony cared, was to cause problems for the other races of Equestria. So far all he had learned all that in grade school.

“Gremlins have regular hibernation cycles between eight and ten years. This enables them to maximize their activity at a minimum of risk. By the time they’re finished, they’re asleep, giving us ample time to recover. When they do wake up, they form around one strong leader, on the basis of intimidation. There have been no recorded instances of a pack of gremlins developing into a larger entity. They are simply too unstable for that.”

It was like watching Twilight gave an impromptu presentation. In fact, it reminded him, verbatim, of a presentation Twilight had made in grade school. He could hear the entire lecture in Twilight’s voice. Yeah, this class was going to be a breeze.

His mother did want Shining to clarify that Twilight was not going to write any of his term papers. She had been very insistent at volunteering herself for the responsibility.

“Gremlins do not manufacture or develop equipment or resources of their own: they use the more ‘advanced’ cultures of Equestria to that end. The gremlins prefer to enrich themselves at the expense of ponies, or any other advanced creature.”

The next slide showed academy students standing amidst piles of stunned gremlins. The gremlins were being stacked onto carts. They had goofy expressions on their faces as if falling asleep mid laugh.

“Hidalgo Springs has the worst gremlin infestation in Equestria. On a regular ten year interval, the gremlins emerge from hibernation to cause a ruckus. And every ten years the students of the academy dutifully put them down. As you are all recent additions to the academy, congratulations! Consider it your first assignment.”

The next slide showed the gremlins being placed onto the floor of a cave. They were stacked into small piles, blissful expressions on their faces. The cave entrance was barricaded for another hibernation cycle.

“We just stun them with the paralysis spell (you’ll learn that by the end of the semester, don‘t worry) and they go to sleep for another decade. No fuss at all.”

The lights switched back on. For a moment Shining’s eyes reeled from the charge from dimness to brightness. He rubbed his eyes as the class moaned in unison.

“The gremlin is anything but a national security threat. An inconvenience, if even that. If they were more formidable than what cadets could deal with, we wouldn’t send you up against them.”

“What would you recommend?” a voice from the back asked. “Magic or non-magic responses?”

“Whatever works, works. Remember: gremlin magic is formidable, but hardly on the same level of pony magic. If all the adversaries you faced were as weak as the gremlin, you would enjoy a much smoother ride at the academy.”

Rock nodded. He had cut his teeth chasing after Changelings through the Everfree. This would be a snap. A waste of his time, even.

The bell rang. The cadets rose, scrambling for books and notebooks.

“Dismissed.”

Shining gathered his books and made a beeline for the administration building. End of the week meant the first mail call. Plain white envelope from his parents, purple from Twilight, and a bright pink letter from Cadence! Shining almost bounced in place in the line for mail. Whoever was responsible for organizing it was taking their sweet time.

“Cadet…Shining Armour?”

“Present!”

The old mare behind the counter grimaced and handed Shining his letters. He smiled and walked off excitedly. Luminous was standing to one side, reading his only letter.

“How is your family?” Shining asked.

“Great,” Luminous said, returning to his letter. Nice and short, as was his family way. Most of it spent explaining what was sold, in what numbers and for how much as if somehow he was supposed to be impressed or this somehow mattered to his time at the academy.

Business was good. Business was always good. It’s not too late to change your mind his mother added at the end of her message. Cutie marks could be difficult to interpret. Luminous grimaced. At some point his destiny would sink in with them, hopefully before he died of old age.

He had three siblings who were more interested in the jewel trade than he was. Didn’t thank account for anything? Sometimes he wondered if it had ever sunk in that he wasn’t a blank flanked foal anymore. He was fully grown, and now had a destiny. Whenever he forced the issue with his parents, they just looked at him as if they could will the issue to change.

Shining made his way to his room. He sprawled on his bed opening Cadence’s letter first. He found himself giggling with delight. Rock, from the bed opposite him, gave a half-hearted glance upwards from his book. Classes were dull for him because they were all the stuff he learned on Poseidon Island. He was getting a leg up on the work to come.

“Good news?” he asked.

“Well, news. News from home.” She missed him so much.

Rock’s eye drifted to the photographs Shining festooned his half of the room with: his parents, his sister, and, surprisingly, Princess Mia Amore Cadenza. Some ponies got all the luck.

“Princess Mia Amore Cadenza is a friend of yours?”

“Used to foal sit my kid sister.”

“So,” Rock asked, flipping a page, “you have a member of the royal family for your girlfriend?”

Shining blushed. Not exactly…well, yes they were friends. Maybe more than friends but they never discussed how much more. She never disagreed that he was special to her, and likewise, but exactly how special was up in the air---but she was special.

“My family is reasonably high on the social ladder. I mean, not royal family, but we’re reasonably well known in Canterlot. Magic runs very strong in my family.”

“Sounds nice,” growled Rock. Having connections to someone important---the most unreasonable landlord in Manehattan did not count.

“Its going to be great to see her again in a few weeks. I mean, I’d like it if she came here but royal duties…”

“Just leave a towel on the door if you’re, shall we say, sullying the royal bloodline.”

“We’re not that far yet!”

“You can push the beds together if you like,” Rock continued, “but clean up after yourselves: I don’t want to marinate in the smell of your congress for the rest of the semester.”

Shining finished the letter again before reluctantly setting it aside to read the other letters. Twilight’’s was next. She was bursting with excitement with her lessons, and missed her brother very, very much. Having the house almost to herself had been fun at first but without her big brother it felt smaller and emptier.

His parents were proud of him. Nothing he didn’t already know.

Maybe he should start writing back before the absence of his loved ones gnawed at him. So he manipulated a quill and parchment off the table.

“Get anything?”

“Hmm?”

“At mail call. Anyone write you?”

“Like who?” Rock asked.

“Guard buddies?”

“Colleagues,” Rock clarified. Personnel rotated frequently according to their assignments. Since he was destined for the academy that put a wedge between him and some of the others. Well, here he was, and they were not.

“Well, colleagues?”

“Not yet.” A flat no would not be what Shining would want to hear.

“I hope they do soon,” Shining said.

“Yes.” Rock put the book down. He got a quill and parchment of his own. He wouldn’t write but he could sketch. Studies in watching my roommate getting chewed out.San Palomino landscapes were his speciality. He sketched a desert scene from memory. It was either his chair or lovesick roommate. Good gravy, he felt queasy just looking at him.

Shining wrote it was fantastic to hear from Cadence, explaining that his new duties were “challenging” and the academy had been an adjustment. He missed her, hoped she was well, encouraged her to write more. He told Twilight it was actually possible to get things done now that he wasn’t around her, and she shouldn’t lose sleep over writing him. Nana Nana Boo Boo.

“Attention!”

Shining looked up to see Thundering Hearts at the door, and Rock standing in perfect attention. Shining scrambled, and saluted. Thundering did not look amused.

“We’ve spoken about the importance of proper salutation, you may recall.”

“Yes sir.”

Thundering’s gaze narrowed. “Walk with me cadet.”

His roommate walked out and to his fate. Rock shook his head and started the chapter over. Celestia willing the poor fool would learn quickly.

Several days had passed since the king had woken up.

It was warm. The horde was stirring. Moaning and groaning filled the chamber, followed by curses as limbs fought to untangle themselves. A few sharp yelps as shoving turned to biting. Fury reigned for a moment, and then the horde began to move out of the cave in search of food.

Their king was not happy. Ever since he was a hatchling, it was the same routine: wake, a few days of pleasure and then the next thing he remembered was waking up in a rocky cave.

The last thing he remembered was facing down a turquoise unicorn. He remembered the smug look on it’s face, then suddenly the king was on the ground, the unicorn standing over him and calling to his comrades. “Got the last one, I think!”

The gremlin king had been through this twice. Struggling to wake, his limbs feeling as heavy as rocks thanks to the effects of the pony’s spells. He lay somewhere in a heap in a shallow cavern a good walk from the pony’s town. Every time that were put to sleep the ponies tried to find somewhere farther to hide them.

The gremlin king was the first to stagger out of the cave. Frustration brewed within him: to the ponies a decade may have passed, but all of his defeats appeared to occur within the same evening. He growled in anger. He kicked a rock down a cliff face.

While the other gremlins howled in frustration, at least he was lucid enough to see what the problem was: the spells the ponies used. The gremlins were a furious, uncontrollable horde that always swarmed the ponies, and every time the ponies put them down with a blast from their horns. They laughed when they did that! Laughed!

The gremlin king spat. He had been strong enough to fight off several contenders, though currently not strong enough to impress his will onto the horde entirely. If an order was not understood well enough it was not obeyed.

Which was to the detriment of his horde: he needed to find a way around the ponies’ spells if his horde was going to thrive. No way around it, no matter how much his inferiors cackled. He had eaten the last gremlin to call him an aspiring pony, meaning he had to put up with grumbles as opposed to mocking laughter.

The gremlin king sat on a log. He had his head in his hands. Hopefully, if they were careful (and they never were) they could last a couple of weeks at best.

A rock bounced off his head. He roared in anger: a couple of hatchlings laughed. With a couple of snarling bites the king filled his stomach. Too young, too gamey.

The hatchlings’ sire roared. It stamped out of the cave, babbling.

The gremlin king picked up a rock from the ground. It was orange and dusty. Similar to many, many rocks in the tunnels that the ponies had left, and typically ignored for their commonness. The gremlin king hurled it at the offending gremlin, smacking it right between the eyes.

The rock left a cloud of dust that settled on the gremlin’s horn. The gremlin, face contorted into anger, snarled. He tried to grip a rock with his telekinesis, but it wobbled as it took flight. It made a couple of feet off the ground before the spell was broken and it fell.

The gremlin king was intrigued. The furious gremlin tried again, and the rock failed to move more than couple of inches. He gripped his horn. He yelped in confusion.

The gremlin king fired another bolt of anger at him. He managed to knock the gremlin back a few steps, but so far had not knocked him out. Interesting: the orange dust retarded the creation of and effect of magic. Maybe not as much as the king would have liked, but so far he was pleased with what he saw.

The hatchling’s sire was easy to defeat. It was resigned to his fate, or should have been. When the king was finished he rose, a sense of purpose taking hold. The gremlin king smiled. Perhaps things were not as dire as he had supposed. He bellowed for the horde to come to him and learn.

Rock found himself with little to do. After completing his studies he found himself restless. Unless he wanted to watch Thundering Hearts watch his roommate salute every squirrel, bird and rabbit that came within range until he got it right, he needed something to occupy his mind. Best of luck to you, Rock thought. It took Rock a lot less time to learn, though there was a fifteen push-up penalty following every failed attempt.

Rock walked into Hidalgo Springs. He was permitted a short excursion if he had nothing to do at the academy. He glanced back at the hill to see how badly Shining was doing.

“Again!”

“But…” Shining protested, certain that he got it right that time. Not that the chipmunk would have cared.

“Again!” Thundering roared. “We’re getting this right!”

Within a minute a sparrow had landed within several paces. Shining immediately snapped into a salute.Please let me get it right this time. He closed his eyes and hoped dearly he did it right. Thundering’s snort destroyed that illusion.

“Do you know how long we’ve been at this, cadet?”

“No, sir!”

“Two hours. Two whole hours and you haven’t gotten it right.”

“I’m…I’m sorry, sir.”

Thundering sighed, shaking his head. An idea entered his head. Something an older cadet had offered him back when he was in Shining’s position, an offer he never accepted but always thought about from time to time.

“Tell you what,” Thundering said, “let’s make a deal.”

“Go on.” Shining knew on some level this would be a bad idea, but curiosity was propelling him along. After all this work he was getting interested in a shortcut.

“Go to The Mare and get me a coaster,” Thundering said, a wicked smile on his face. “I’ll overlook the more serious of your indiscretions.”

Shining vaguely remembered reading a pamphlet regarding the academy’s stance on hazing. Snipe hunts were discouraged. Then again after two hours anything was starting to look good.

“For real?”

“Why not? Figuring since you’re doing everything else right…”

A rabbit bounded out from behind a bush. “Attention!”

Shining saluted the rabbit, who wriggled its nose curiously before bounding off in the direction of the Everfree.

“Well? You’re not getting any better at it!”

Rock turned his back and walked on. Another disappointing mail call and he felt he needed to clear his head. Burying it in a book hadn’t bought the peace he hoped for. Too many memories of Thunder.

Thunder encouraged him to try for the guard college. He gave him a hearty brohoof and ordered him to do him proud when Rock got the news he was accepted. That was before Thunder went to go deal with a flock of Hydra, leading eight ponies in and ensuring six made it back.It was his finest work and a fitting legacy. Celestia’s statement concluded with “may all soldiers of Equestria regard him as fearless example.”

Would Thunder have made it as far as he had? Sometimes Thunder had talked about the academy. A difficult question to ask because the dead could have done anything. Rock didn’t consider himself beholden to his brother, well, no more than after getting him through a difficult colthood.

Rock walked back towards the academy. “Attention!”

Rock looked back to see Shining standing rock solid at attention, saluting him. Thundering walked slowly around the cadet, scrutinizing his performance.

“At ease, cadet,” Rock said.

Shining didn’t know what to do for the fraction of a second. Thundering’s glare turned murderous. “Well?” he barked.

“Well?” Shining asked, immediately regretting it.

“At ease!” demanded Thundering.

Shining slapped into position. Thundering, for the millionth time that day, sighed in frustration.

“Again!” Thundering roared.

Rock smirked. Things weren’t all bad.

The first field exercise, in principle, was simple: get from one point to the other, demonstrating the skills taught in the classroom. They were broken into teams and given a compass and map. Through his classroom participation and demonstrated talent, Shining was made team lead.

“Naturally,” Rock said. Rock had hauled his rear through the worst of the San Palomino; this was a charming stroll by comparison. Pretty Boy, naturally, got the job.

Shining ignored the comment as he plotted the route. He mumbled to himself, thinking that this would be no different that when he was in the Canterlot scouts. It was a short obstacle course between several sections. A proctor cadet would be stationed at each one to monitor their progress and ensure there was no cheating. Now they were to employ their lessons.

Easy as pie, Shining decided. They’ll probably even be the first group to finish.

“Okay, Rock,” Shining said, “you’re on compass duty.”

“Understood,” he said, accepting the compass from Shining. They knelt down to plot their route. Shining took a marker and, after studying the map carefully, began to plot their course.

“What do you think?” Shining asked.

“It looks erratic.”

“It’s quick.” Shining used the marker to point how their path looped around, passing through each checkpoint in turn. The paths he selected were unconventional, but permitted. Rock and Luminous weren’t so sure: Shining had misjudged the steepness and distance in his quest for efficiency.

Shining looked around: they were in the valley just behind the academy. “All right,” he declared, “let’s get started.”

The three ponies got to their hooves. He pointed down the path. “We need to go that way for half a click.”

Luminous sauntered; Rock kept a purposeful trot. Luminous walked as if he expected candy and rainbows at the destination. Rock could only snort derisively. Shining asked for bearings every few paces, his focus on the map.

He led them on past the starting checkpoint and onto the main path. It would be a long way to the first marker. It had gotten surprisingly hot today. Shining took it as a challenge to get it done quickly.

If they stuck to the path they should be all right. It would loop around the foot of a large hill and follow the hill’s contours to the midpoint. A nice easy start to the assignment.

“Judging by the map, the marker should be located in somewhere with a lot of quartz,” Luminous said.

“How is that pertinent?” Rock asked.

“Well, if we’re near more quartz we’re on the right track.”

“We’re not treasure hunting,” Rock grumbled. “And how, precisely, are we to know when we are near quartz, anyway?”

“I’m trying to use knowledge of the environment to our advantage!”

“Well, we don‘t all think like jewel merchants, do we?”

Luminous looked angry. Shining stepped in: “Let’s work the problem. Sooner it gets done, sooner it gets done.”

“Sounds nice to me,” Luminous growled.

The made it to the place where Shining thought the marker was. It was not. They spent a minute standing around, checking to make sure that a devilish prank was not part of the exercise. Sure enough, they were in the wrong area.

“We should be almost there,” Shining said. He double checked the map to ensure that he had screwed up as badly as he had feared. Apparently he had. The appropriate fork in the road was nearly a mile behind them; he had lead them down the wrong path.

“Where?” Luminous asked. His head darted from side to side. He expected to be right on top of it from where it was located on the map.

“You can’t miss it,” Rock said, “it twinkles.”

“What exactly are you getting at?” Luminous asked.

Shining snorted. “Come on! I can see it!”

It was just slightly below them. No problem: they just backtracked a little. It turned out that they had to backtrack a lot, since the path made several sharp swings along the side of the hill. They made it, the third of fourth group to do so.

The cadet at the station crossed them off his list. Finally they could search for the second marker. Shining led them off the path…and down a gully. They staggered back onto the main path, filthy as could be.

“What the heck!” Luminous exclaimed.

“Its called dirt: those of us who don’t live in Canterlot see it a lot,” Rock said. “Don’t worry: contact on your body won’t kill you.”

“It could have been worse!” Luminous protested. Hidalgo Springs had been a significant mining region, until the valuable ore ran out and all that was left was Fool’s Iron. Disused mining shafts still littered the landscape. They were hard to see, and if they continued to blunder around the mountain they would almost certainly plummet down one.

They got back onto the path. Shining called for the map and compass and began to plot their next move. It would be a bit of a challenge. After the first marker it couldn’t have been that hard---though Shining knew he was probably tempting fate by thinking that.

“According to the map, the quartz is giving way to granite.”

“How will that help us?” Rock asked.

“We’ll be higher on the mountain: we can use that as a landmark.”

“Great. Because using our eyes to check for any other more useful landmark wouldn’t work, right?” Rock asked.

“Like I said, I’m using my knowledge of the environment to our advantage.”

“We know we’re on a giant rock,” Rock replied. “I think the information we need is how to get down.”

“Find a ledge and jump,” Luminous suggested.

Any minute now the marker would come within sight. There on the horizon…horizon? Where were they? Shining led his group back to the appropriate path.

Immediately they had to check their map again. Shining had misread a suitable path: instead of being a firm path it was a rocky meander, suitable to goats and mules, not ponies. “Okay,” he said. “We can get through this.”

“We’re nearly four clicks off course,” Rock pointed out.

Shining sighed. “All right,” he said, “give me a bearing.”

They reached the second to last checkpoint. One more to go, at long last. It would prove to be the hardest to get to, if the twisted course on the map was anything to go by. Shining frowned: if he had read this map right, the approach would be slow and narrow.

“Okay,” he admitted, “this one is going to be a problem.”

“Are we going to be doing this all day?” Luminous moaned.

“You could magic your way to the checkpoint if you wanted, your highness,” Rock growled.

“I’m not that skilled with magic. We don’t all get to be Celestia’s student, after all,” Luminous countered.

“Apparently you don’t all get to be competent, either.”

Shining needed to make a plan, now, if his team stood a chance at surviving. The long they stood around lost the more likely they would come to fighting. They needed to get moving again, transfer some of their hostility into the task at hoof.

“Okay,” Shining took out the map. “Compass?”

Rock put the compass on the map. Shining thought quickly: they had to make up for lost time. From the looks of things it wouldn’t be too hard provided they hoof it and go straight for it. Uncomfortable but necessary.

“Okay, we’re taking a left at the path and following a rise in the hill.”

“Are you nuts?” Rock asked. Judging by the path Shining had chosen they stood a perilously close chance of making it past the tree line. No bounds had been set for the exercise because the instructors were certain nobody would be stupid enough to do that.

“C’mon,” Shining said, “it’s the quickest route.”

“It may not be the most survivable,” Rock countered.

“We’re expected to be pathfinders, not mount climbers,” Luminous added.

“We’ll make it. Believe me.”

Luminous and Rock looked at each and shook their heads in agreement of the only thing they could agree upon today. It took a moment for Shining to realize that the path he had chosen was almost totally vertical. So high…why was it so high?

Luminous had spoken the truth when commented about the quality of the rock: it was hard underfoot. The angle of approach was so skewed as to be exceptionally difficult but Shining persevered. He had to prove he could take it. He had to take it. Shining just wanted today to be over with. One hoof before the other, each one taking him a step closer to the
end of the painful exercise.

“The marker!” In the distance it beckoned ahead. It fluttered majestically in the breeze. “Come on! Its not the far!”

A few sudden lurches nearly resulted in the group tumbling down the mountain. The marker remained in sight, as if wondering what was taking them so long. It seemed to get playfully further away from them with each step.

Shining’s legs gave out from under him. He gasped, certain that it would be his terminal breath.Celestia…guide me to the next life. With the last of his strength he made it to the marker and collapsed.

A shadow darkened Shining’s head. A senior cadet looked down at Shining, glaring at him. “May I help you?”

Shining smiled. “Group 4, reporting, sir.”

Shining felt relief: they had made it. The last ones to make it, but they made it at all. Even the smallest victory was still a victory.

The senior cadet rolled his eyes. He checked them off his list. “You know,” the cadet said calmly, “you could have taken the lesser path.”

He gestured with his head to a small path to his right. The second to last group of cadets had started their way down. From behind him Rock and Luminous wheezed in despair.

“A for effort. Effort---not intelligence,” the cadet said. “Hoof it back to the academy.”

The began the trudge back to the academy. Shining could hear the snickering behind his back and could feel the contempt his squad mates were glaring at him. He just wanted to sink into bed and let the profitless day fade from memory.

Shining took his place in the formation. From across the field waited the other team, the abhorred red and greens. He gritted his teeth and prepared himself for the blast of the referee’s whistle. The referee was taking his time, adjusting his sunglasses and gingerly taking the whistle out of his pocket and rubbing it against his shirt.

Shining felt each individual drop of sweat leave it’s pore and run down his face. Both sides looked ready to burst.The referee, finally, put the whistle in his mouth and counted down another five seconds. Then he blew it. Both teams thundered towards the ball at that moment.

The objective of the game was to get the ball through the various hoops, each of different heights and sizes, with points afforded according to difficulty. Two pegasi from each team circled overhead, ready to deflect any shots or make any scores.

Shining struggled to keep up. The ball was furious passed between players. It arced overhead, through the two point hoop for Shining’s side. The opposing team roared in triumph.

Snorting in disgust, Shining’s team reformed on the scrimmage line. Within seconds the ball sailed through the two point hoop again. The best the blue and yellows could do was hurling the ball a couple of times through the one point hoops.

For the rest of the game the best the blue and yellows could do was stonewall them. The ball rapidly passed from team-mate to team-mate; the blue and yellows kept moving, trying to charge through a formidable defence.

“Shining!” Rock called. “Head’s up!”

The ball bounced off of Shining’s face. The opposing team laughed as the referee whistled and the teams reformed.

Time was running out.

“I’ve got an idea,” Shining said.

“Great,” Rock said. “Let’s hear it.”

Luminous’ hooves scrambled for purchase as Shining levitated him off the ground. Both Rock and both teams stood still in bemusement. Luminous stopped scrambling for cover and froze in the air.

“Are you kidding me?” Rock yelled.

“Objection!” a pony called. “Holding!”

“The ball or the player?” another player asked. “Is there a difference?”

The referee pursed his lips. “Gonna need to check the book…”

“Shining, are you out of your mind?” Rock demanded. Luminous was studying him with anxious eyes, hoping Rock had a plan he had been keeping secret. Rock could only reflect his best wishes.

“Trust me,” Shining said.

“Doing that hasn’t ended well lately,” Rock replied.

“Do I get a say in this?” Luminous asked weakly.

“Aim for the three point hoop,” Shining said.

“I have rights! Luminous yelled.

Shining took a step back. He aimed carefully; the opposing team was snapped out of their trance and was stampeding towards Luminous, murder in their eyes.

“Ready?”

“Sort of.”

“Here we go!”

Luminous flew through the air. The ball flew through the three point hoop. That put his team over the edge. Both teams stood in silence for a moment. The captain of the red and green stomped over to the referees: “This isn’t fair!”

The referees went back to their rulebooks. They shrugged.“Looks legit to us.”

Luminous staggered to his feet. He shook his head, trying to come back to earth. He shuffled off towards his team’s side. The referees blew their whistles for the last time. Apparently they had won.

The red and greens shuffled off the field, fury on their faces. The blue and yellows were happy, though confused.

An instructor eyed Shining as he made his way off the field.

“A word, Shining Armour?”

Shining trotted over.

“That was very novel.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“It was also very stupid.”

Shining felt stunned.

“You didn’t put much thought into the welfare of that pony, did you?”

“No, sir,” Shining admitted.

“So,” he asked, “what exactly were you thinking?”

“We won, sir. I did what we need to do.”

“I did what I had to do is the first words out of any pony’s mouth when they screw up royal.” He sighed. “There’s being daring, there’s doing what you must do, and there’s being just plain stupid. An officer in the guard knows the difference.”

Shining said nothing.

“At some point you may have to order somepony to their death. Which means you treat the welfare of your ponies with gravity. We clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good,” the instructor said. “Clean yourself up.”

Shining plodded towards the locker room. His team mates politely gave their thanks for winning the game. They won, unconventionally, but a victory was a victory. Luminous kept his mouth shut. He felt a little hurt, a little angry, but nothing he wanted to say to Shining’s face.

“Good game?” Shining asked.

“Yeah,” Luminous replied. He accepted the offered hoof bump and left. Shining watched him leave, certain that Luminous probably hated him a little.

First leave finally came. The train ride home passed uneventfully. Shining’s thoughts were of Cadence and his family, which were enough to kill a train ride. Shining almost bolted into the air when he finally saw them. Twilight raced up to him the second he got off the train. They embraced, both babbled at the same time about how much they missed each other. It was so nice to see his parents again, and they complimented him by mentioning how much more of a stallion he had become.

He made plans to meet Cadence, the only thing that kept him sane during the gruelling exam period before leave time. Half of his letters to her were filled with notes about Equestrian military history, tactics and other esoteric things that a princess found most confusing.

She invited him to a banquet, one of many that was as frequent to Canterlot as rain to other parts of Equestria. They would meet in the palace gardens. The workday had ended and a few of the palace staff were unwinding in the peaceful gardens. The banquet itself had yet to begin; some guests were chatting in the gardens.

Shining looked around for Cadence.Please don’t be late. Did Cadence swing by his house to see if he was there? Should he dash back?

“Shining?”

Cadence appeared in a swirl of colourful fabric. Shining smiled and rushed over to her. “Good to see you,” he said.

“You too.”

“How was the ride home?” Cadence asked.

“Pleasant,” Shining said. “I’m just glad exam time is behind me.”

“Shall we?” Cadence asked.

Shining nodded. “I’d prefer if I wasn’t referred to as your escort when we walk in: it makes me feel like you’re paying me by the hour.”

“Considering how tedious these things can be,” Cadence laughed, “I feel like I should.”

Having a regular caller no doubt came as a comfort to the palace. As she walked past with Shining, more than a few ponies sighed in relief. Aunt Celestia had made it clear to her niece that zapping feelings into possible suitors was out of bounds. That was a phase that all of Canterlot was glad had passed.

Cadence frequently heard snickering from the court pages, taunting, “So when’s the wedding?” Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed a couple of repeat offenders, smug smiles on their faces, chuckling as they walked past. She glared at them as they walked out of sight.

Shining stressed to his parents they weren’t, technically, officially dating. “She’s a nice girl,” his mother always said, before going on a lecture about the importance of respecting her feelings; and he almost had to fight his father over the anecdotes of the time he was courting his mother, which his son would do well to follow. It was enough to make him scream. All he knew was that enjoyed spending time with Cadence. Very, very few things in his life would meet, let alone exceed, the pleasure of an evening of her company.

“Princess Cadence...and, escort.”

From across the room Celestia noted the two ponies enter. Shining gave a respectful nod, which Celestia returned. She studied them with a knowing eye. She continued making small talk with various nobility and dignitaries, sparing her niece the embarrassment of being singled out by the princess of Equestria. In due time, Celestia felt, the two would become inseparable, and she felt happy for her niece.

“Why did you want to see me in my uniform?” Shining asked. “I’ve plenty of formal wear?”

“So they can admire a handsome young cadet,” she said.

She leaned into his ear: “You very much are, you may recall.” She was puzzled why he flinched.

The banquet itself would not start until some fashionably late time, and all the guests were expected to make banter and ignore their growing hunger. Cadence sighed: just the court gossip going through the palace, which she had heard three times over. Thank goodness for Shining.

A couple of guards stood at attention. Cadence nodded and they relented. They eyed Shining as he walked past: as a cadet he wasn’t obligated to perform anything specific to show respect, but he felt they deserved something. Shining was nearly three and a half years away from joining them. So close and yet so far.

“Sorry if I’m not the most deferential to her royal highness.”

“Its not a problem,” she said. “The guards are like that. You‘ll get used to it. You should be a little more formal, though. I’m very disappointed in you. Drop and give me twenty.”

“I’m on break.”

She chuckled. “You’re off the hook this time.”

They walked along. It was a pleasant evening.

“You did get appointed to squad leader for an excercise. Your first taste of serious leadership!”

Shining sighed in despair. “They haven’t murdered each other in their sleep yet. Maybe they want to get rid of me first. I made sure we survived each other. Trust me when I consider that a job well done.”

“You’ll get the job done. Believe me when I say that you’re a natural leader. Remember the weekend your parents were away and Twilight got the flu?” Cadence asked.

“How can I forget?” There were several bowls and buckets at home that gave Shining the creeps, remembering Twilight’s head perched over them.

“I remember you acted as if you were trying to turn back the hordes?”

“Hey, I was! My sister was sick.”

Cadence chuckled. “Such a responsible stallion. How is she doing?”

“She’s loving her time with Celestia,” Shining said. “She’s looking forwards to learning how to tesseract.’

“Oh, I do miss her. I just wish…if I could find a moment to see her again.”

“We’ll find a time,” Shining, “she won’t run away from us. We‘re the ones who are going to buried under all the things we‘ll be expected to do. We‘re the problem, not her.”

Shining wouldn’t have had it any other way but from time to time he got nostalgic of the simpler times. Times that, naturally, were never that simple. Over time his responsibilities at the academy would pile up. That weighed on his mind. Goodness knew what Cadence’s problems were. Being royalty, no doubt long and very, very tedious.

“You chose them, and I admire you for that,” Cadence said, “I was born into them. I don‘t have the freedom you enjoy. I had to inspect a guard regiment recently.”

“How did that go?” Shining asked.

“I really wish I could have taken their word for it,” she sighed. It was a long afternoon spent walking up a long row of identical stoic ponies. They took their sweet time marching past too. It was very hot that day.

Her problems were the sort of ceremonial nonsense requiring a member of the royal family to be present. Granted the guard had a lot of that coming out of their ears: inspections, parades, and the like as they were indoctrinated with a sense of duty and tradition. Outside of the academy Shining doubted it would have any impact on Equestria.

“Its still really hard, and I don‘t always know what to do,” he said.

Cadence laughed. “You’re asking the wrong pony for help. Half the time I think you might have a better head on your shoulders than I do. Thank goodness I could find someone who understands.”

She kissed him. It felt like Shining was walking on air. Cadence took a step forward, hoof on his shoulder before he could test the feeling.

“ Come on,” she said. “I’d like to have an evening with my own personal cadet.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It was evening definitely worth the wait and all the suffering involved. If this was chief benefit from being in the guard, all his burdens would be worth it. Now he could go back to the academy with renewed strength.

Chapter 3

“So,” High Tower asked, “any new business?”

The ponies along the meeting table looked at each other. At the back a unicorn pony cleared her throat.

“We’ve been receiving reports of gremlin activity…”

“Already?” High Tower asked. Normally it would be closer to summer before they heard the first signs of renewed gremlin activity.

“We think that the recent warm snap woke them up,” she clarified.

High Tower nodded. “Makes sense.”

“A few barrels of mead have already gone missing, apparently pried out of their store. All signs point to gremlins.”

She passed a photograph along the length of the table. It looked like the bars over the store’s windows had been bitten off, the windows shattered with rocks. Not the level of organization to be expected from pony thieves.

“The mayor of Hidalgo Springs is requesting we send out patrols to quell gremlin activity, in case they get to be a little more mischievous this year than usual.”

High Tower sighed. This was not a good time of the academic year. They would have to reschedule exercises, mid-terms and probably a dozen other things. The gremlin quell was a stressful and inconvenient thing to happen whenever it did, but this would be the most inconvenient time for it to happen

“Very well,” he said. “Let’s start forming parties. I’d like a list of cadets prepared we can spare for a few days. I‘d rather not throw the freshmen into this right away.”

The unicorn nodded.“I’ll inform the mayor right away that we’re on it.”

“Good,” High Tower replied. They could probably rustle up some volunteers from the senior cadets, impatient with school and ready for an actual challenge. Some disobedient cadets could be assigned the duty, otherwise.

High Tower closed the meeting. He had to meet Chancellor Irons, get him to authorize some petty bureaucratic nonsense. Lucky him.

You treated The Mare In Heat like you did the Everfree forest: as something to be dreaded, feared, shunned and ignored. Yet you still found yourself walking in. It was definitely a slow night: only three patrons had been hurled onto the sidewalk.

THE MARE IN HEAT!

LAST CALL: SUNRISE. HAPPY HOUR: DAWN

“This is a very stupid idea,” Rock said. He wondered what twisted soul contrived such idiotic liquor laws, and how backlogged must Celestia be before she got around to fixing the problem.

“Concurred.”

“A miracle has happened this day,” Rock mumbled.

“Cadets sneak in all the time. You know that,” Shining made his attempt to rally his troops. Convincing them to come out with him had partially succeeded. Rock and Luminous had expected Shining to choke when he saw the hulking structure that Hidalgo Springs shunned.

“The senior cadets,” Luminous added. “The hulking brutes. Not reed thin first year cadets.”

“Well, they won’t throw us out right away, unless we cause trouble, so it won’t be that big a problem.”

“Why exactly are we along for the ride?” Luminous asked.

“Good question,” Rock added. “You’re the one in hot water.”

Shining had been vague about his intentions. He wanted to know if Rock and Luminous were willing to go into town with him tonight, and the had followed if only out of curiosity and boredom. Shining had been acting like he was preparing a jewel heist from the way he acted, as if everypony was watching him.

They figured it was to run inference while he was seeing a filly. As soon as the crept closer to the Mare, and were not moving past it, their expectations had adjusted to terrifying depths.

“I think it would be better if we went in as a group: less trouble the more of us there are,” Shining replied. “The more of us the more of a deterrent it would be.”

“I still think this is a very stupid idea,” said Rock. He was trotting behind Shining. Even if he got expelled he knew this was something he had to watch, an experience to last a lifetime. Shining was beginning to regret his decision to come here, but he didn’t think he had a choice left: he needed that coaster.

Thundering had admitted Shining was a committed and successful student, but his inability to grasp “basic discipline” would result in “serious consequences.” But he always said he was just a coaster away from setting things right. Right now that coaster from The Mare In Heat seemed to be his only hope.

“We’ll just get in, get out and nobody gets hurt. What’s the worst that could happen?” Shining asked, opening the door.

“Slime!” Shining reeled from the head butt of a furious Earth pony. From behind the bar the bartender blasted him into the stratosphere.

“Sorry about that,” he called. “For the time being, you might want to come in through the windows: some of our more colourful patrons have decided to claim that part of the bar and have begun interpreting every attempt to walk inside as an act of war.”

“Can’t you kick them out?” Shining asked.

“Hey, they tip well. What will it be?”

Shining and his company approached the bar. So far, so good. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. Order something, pay for it, and be gone and no one would be the wiser.

“How much are three drinks?”

“Three bits.”

“A pint?”

“A cask.”

“We’ll share, thanks,” Shining said. “One cider cask.”

The bartender dropped three glasses in front of the ponies.

“These glasses smell strange,” Shining said.

“Were these washed?” Rock asked.

“Ah. Well, we kind of forgot to pay our water bill…several years ago. Got plenty of gin though! Almost the same thing!”

“What about the bathrooms?” Rock asked.

“No one’s used them from the beginning, and are not about to start now!”

Rock and Luminous glared at Shining. All he could do was smile back. The bartender produced their drinks. It tasted like apple-flavoured alcoholic water. Whatever it had been, it had been watered down to within an inch of its life.

He breathed slowly and pretended to act normally. The worst thing he could do was reassure the ponies around him that he did not belong here. Shining pocketed the coaster. He just needed to finish his drink and they could get out of here. He took a deep breath. He raised the glass to his lips. Just one taste, he didn’t have to finish it. Just a few swallows and he’d be out of here.

A few swallows turned into a few more and soon his glass was almost empty. Both of his glasses in fact…wait. The slow realization that this was not ordinary cider crept into his mind: watered down, maybe, but watered down with what?

“Ex…excuse me,” he said. He stood up and noticed the world rotating in three different directions. He staggered away from the bar, unsure where he was headed. It was like some part of his brain became active and was guiding him along.

A mare from the black took notice of him. She was black and blue and had a crop as a cutie mark. She sauntered over to Shining.

“So…are you interested?”

“I’m interesting!” Shining laughed.

“I meant…do you desire the company of a beautiful soul. I can provide pleasure beyond your most expectations?”

“Well, I don‘t…!”

The mare looked insulted. Shining froze with horror. For a moment sobriety had returned to him. He felt ashamed for being here, for facing a mare of questionable repute.

“Shouldn’t we help him?” Luminous asked.

Rock smiled. “Why? I haven’t had this much fun in months!”

“Sorry…ma’am.” Shining needed a moment to determine what exactly he was looking at. “Sorry…sir?”

“Barbarian!”

It took Shining a moment to realize he had been punched. It took maybe a minute for the sensation of pain to reach his brain. After that the world around him descended into chaos.

Attention and fury turned to Luminous and Rock. Rock slipped up off his stool, hooves ready. It had been awhile since he had the chance to do any serious damage. He smiled at the opportunity.

Shining hit the dirt. He settled into the deepest, most peaceful sleep of his life. He had a goofy smile on his face. Not even the sounds of the room erupting into chaos could disturb him.

Dean High Tower sighed. Hijinks were inevitable, and colts will be colts. Goodness knew High Tower hadn’t been a squeaky clean cadet. Thundering Hearts glared at Shining, who nervously stared at the Dean.

“We take these sorts of incidents very seriously,” he said.

The constabulary dragged cadets back to the academy at least once or twice a semester. Graduation…don’t think of graduation now, it would only make him mad, for things he had done as much as anything else. Getting involved in a bar brawl was not a surprise: if you’re going to infringe on discipline, might as well go all the way. He made Shining the first target of his wrath. Best for the young cadet to learn, and learn quickly, that he was not to be trifled with.

“I’ll be the first to point out you haven’t spent a whole semester at the academy, and if you wanted to try something stupid, I would have thought you had left it behind at the gates along with your childhood,” High Tower added. “And we have exceptionally stringent anti-hazing policies. Anyone tells you to do something stupid, don‘t do it. Don‘t care how senior they are. A bad idea is a bad idea.”

“Yes sir,” Shining replied. Thundering didn’t betray an expression. The older you got the less you thought academy discipline applied to you---a very mistaken assumption, High Tower thought. Any other year he’d entertain the idea of expelling them, but this year was proving unique. It would be best to keep talent as long as possible.

Three first years and a sophomore was exactly what was needed for what High Tower wanted anyways. It was a lousy job that seniors would turn their noses at and freshmen fight each other over in an attempt to prove themselves. They had no choice in the matter, which was gravy.

“So, I have an assignment for all of you.”

He left the cadets in silence to gather their horrible fate for themselves. How much, when and how undesirable would their punishment be?

“As of late there’s been a bit of a warm spell and concern is growing that this could accelerate the reanimation of the gremlins. There have been several unconfirmed sightings at the edge of Hidalgo Springs. If true, decisive action is needed before the problem gets out of hand.”

He paused for a moment to study their reactions. Yes, he was making the point very clearly. Best to finish describing their wretched task; no need to get dramatic.

“You and the other cadets implicated are hereby assigned the night shift of gremlin monitoring. Report to admin at midnight. You‘ll be patrolling the immediate grounds outside of Hidalgo Springs, where the gremlins prefer to congregate.”

Thundering suppressed the outraged sigh building in his chest. Shining knew this was punishment but was relieved it was not expulsion.

“Cadet Hearts will lead you.”

“Me, sir?” Thundering said, as furious as discipline would allow.

“Yes, on account of you starting this little fun in the first place. Considering I could have expelled you, I strongly suggest you take it like the biggest gift in the world.”

Thundering was smart enough to not push his luck. He just nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Dismissed,” High Tower said.

Wordlessly Thundering and Shining left his office. Thundering took a sharp turn at a corner and strode off, holding his head high as if he had not been scolded. Shining walked back to his room. Rock and Luminous had already been scolded as accessories.

He had spent a very uncomfortable night after coming back from the Mare. Rock hadn’t said anything that Shining couldn’t have read on his face. He didn’t know what Luminous thought, and was too afraid to ask.

He hadn’t told his parents he was in trouble and maybe could get away with not telling them at all. He doubted they would have been pleased with him. As for Cadence…best to leave that right there. If she had any more power, she would have decapitated him for treason, he was certain of it.

Maybe it would have been better if he had been expelled. Maybe he wasn’t meant to rise to the challenge after all. Slinking home in disgrace may have been the lesser of two options.

The exam held later in the day felt like going from the fire and into the frying pan. Shadow Falls would be evaluating their elementary magic evasion techniques. As a foal Shining had met Shadow Falls, back when he was captain of the Canterlot guard. Now he was another scrawny cadet. Any personal affection would be impossible to enjoy.

The cadets were arranged around the ring. False confidence was high. They had sparred with each for so long they believed that they knew exactly what was expected of them.

Shadow Falls had dusted his horn in Fool‘s Iron. It was a mineral known for its magic retarding properties: he had to keep himself under control, since these were first year cadets after all. He smiled as the dust shimmered in the light.

Anypony who would try to pull a fast one would be unpleasantly disappointed. With a thickness of Fool’s Iron at this level, any attempt to get a hoof over Shadow would only result with a bad ache for Shadow, and a worse one for the offending cadet when he would be pounded into the ground.

“First cadet!” he called.

Rock, naturally, dominated the match. The other cadets were stunned at his performance, being an earth pony and therefore not supposed to be as acquainted with magic as they were. Nobody said anything, their eyes full of envy and confusion.

“Next!”

Luminous dodged, weaved and evaded. The point of the exam was to determine how capable a pony was in a fight. The evaluators muttered to themselves as they evaluated his performance. Technically good, but…

“Shining Armour, you’re up!”

Shining approached the ring. Shadow Falls did not looked fatigued in the slightest: he’d have to fight the entire academy before he started a sweat. Within seconds it was over: he thought he did pretty well for himself, all things being equal. Shadow did not look disturbed in the slightest---it would take a lot for that to happen!

The evaluators nodded to themselves. They concluded the exam. The students began to shuffle out of the room. Shadow walked over to Rock: “You’re from the service, aren‘t you?”

“The 36th,” Rock said.

“Wear it with pride, son.”

Rock saluted, nodded and walked out with his head held high. Shadow Falls noticed Shining trying to slink away.

“I do recognize you,” Shadow Falls said. “I was wondering if I knew you. You’ve gotten big.”

Shining froze, uncertain whether to display respect or accept friendliness. It had gotten hard to tell lately what was the correct option.

“Ah, Velvet and Night Light’s foal. Its been awhile: how are your parents?”

“Fine, sir,” Shining replied.

Shining had met Shadow Falls at a Hearthswarming Eve party. He had snuck away from where the other foals were sequestered. He loomed over Shining like a giant, chatting with a couple of ministers about esoteric aspects of Equestrian defence policies. Already at that age Shining could understand the broad strokes of the conversation.

Shining mustered up the courage to say hello and to try and talk with him, and Shadow didn’t treat him like a foal who wandered off in search of more punch. He actually talked to Shining, telling him stories of life within the guard that fired his imagination. Shining found his way back to parents with a big smile on his face.

Couple of nights later Shining got his cutie mark. His fate was sealed from then on. His parents had been proud; Twilight was too young to understand.

“Its good to see you here, son. I‘m glad you made it.”

“I did well?” Shining could always hope. He could tell from Shadow’s eyes that his hopes were misplaced.

“No,” Shadow said. “But you were amongst the least clueless.”

Shining nodded. An honest and fair assessment, better than hollow praise.

“I do wonder why I’m here sometimes,” Shining said. Shadow Falls noticed his eyes droop, something he had been through in the rougher moments of the academy.

“You do have what it takes,” Shadow Falls said. “Sometimes you need something big to unlock it. That‘s all.”

“Thank you, sir,” Shining said.

Shining felt like a little of his pride had been restored. He walked off to the shower room feeling slightly better, which he would need when he was on patrol tonight.

Walking into his room, Shining found Rock hard at work. The next few nights were going to be difficult if they didn’t hammer out an understanding. Time to swallow his pride, and own up to his mistakes.

“I’m sorry,” Shining said, “for getting us into this mess.”

Rock said nothing intelligible. He just kept studying. He set his book aside and turned to the next subject.

“I’m sorry if I really made things worse for you.”

“Yes,” Rock snarled, “you did! You very much did!”

Rock snorted. He had gone through a whole semester’s worth of reading, not just to study but to give his formless anger some constructive direction. He was going over the readings on the gremlin again and again, until the words appeared whenever he closed his eyes.

“Sorry? Say something?”

“I wanted to know what you were thinking,” Shining said.

“I was just wondering what type of idiot the cadets in Canterlot produce. Celestia help the realm.”

Shining left him to stew in his bitterness. Seeing as how he had to share the room with him, it was unwise to provoke him any further. He went to find Luminous. He found the unicorn in the common room. Like Rock he had his face in a book.

Shining slowly walked to Luminous. “Hey.”

Luminous looked up. “Hey what?”

Shining sighed. “I came to say I’m sorry.”

“Good idea,” Luminous replied.

“Okay, I haven’t been the best colleague,” Shining said. “I feel lousy that we got saddled with this. And the whole using you as a ball carrier thing a few days ago. That too.”

Luminous turned a page. An apt thing to feel, really. Did he know what Luminous was being called now behind his back? Luminous Ball Hog. He had been called worse, actually he had been called more creative names when he got down to it, but still. It did sting.

“I wish it occurred to you before we set out.”

“Fair enough,” Shining said, remembering the stinging words from his parents whenever he had been punished. This wasn’t a place that tolerated childish excuses easily. “I should’ve thought things through a little better.”

“A little?” Luminous replied. “I almost got used as a living shield at one point in the melee.”

“I’m sorry.”

Luminous closed his book and set it on a nearby table. “What exactly are you getting at?”

“Can we at least get through this in one piece?” Shining asked. “Please.”

“Not an unfair thing to ask,” Luminous said. He wasn’t looking forwards to the assignment. Sooner, and quieter, it got done, all the better for him.

Shining walked off. Several hours were left before he had to meet up with the other two ponies at the administration building. He hoped if he kept moving he could avoid feeling tired.

Chapter 4

Celestia was being sadistic tonight: it didn’t look like the moon had budged an inch since Shining last checked it. The party trudged on in silence, which Shining doubted would give them the element of surprise. Thundering moved with a belligerent purpose, periodically snapping at the other cadets to keep up.

Thundering took point, looking like he was about to murder them. Babysitting first years wasn’t what he had intended. Half the cadets on his floor made it to the Mare almost on a weekly basis: High Tower would have had to throw out half the academy if he seriously wanted to make a difference to discipline! Besides, the twerp wasn’t getting anywhere based on his efforts alone.

Thundering had expected to push as he had been pushed. He had run all kinds of dumb errands to make their seniors who supervised him happy. He snapped a twig under hoof a little louder than it needed to be. From behind Shining kept his head up, away from the dirty looks of Rock and Luminous. Shining kept his head down, glancing left or right to make sure there were no gremlins.

Luminous heard something behind him move. At first he thought it was a raccoon or an owl, but this seemed large and probably less cute.

“I swear something just moved,” Luminous said.

“It was a trick of the light,” Thundering replied, “keep moving.”

Luminous swallowed and pressed on. Maybe Thundering was right. He hoped so, at any rate. He was in charge so he had no choice but to go by his decisions. A side of the guards that he didn’t like.

“We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and gremlins move fast.”

“Not that you’d notice,” Rock muttered. He knew the difference between being genuinely hard and making a show of it to cover for your weaknesses. Thundering here would be chewed up and spat out in thirty seconds in the 36th.

“Sorry?” Thundering asked. Right now it would be highly inadvisable to give him lip. It wasn’t very bright and ponies could be mistaken for gremlins even at close range.

“Nothing,” Rock said, “just making idle chatter.”

“Keep it to yourself. We don’t want to give ourselves away.”

“No, your lordship.”

There was another rustle, followed by another, as if two creatures ran through the same bush within seconds of each other. Neither raccoon nor owl, something larger, which meant something more fearsome.

“I heard something!” protested Luminous.

“For the last time, its your imagination!”

Shining wasn’t so sure: he had heard it himself,and judging by Rock’s posture so had he, and he reacted on instinct. Rock’s eyes were scanning the local vegetation, in a manner that suggested he had done this before. Searching for something with the intention of harming it before it harmed him.

“Maybe we should…”

“No,” Thundering said. “We’re going to keep moving, no ifs, ands or buts.”

“We’re moving too fast to be an effective patrol,” Shining said. “Tramping wildly through the brush is not very efficient.”

“I am in command!” Thundering said. “I know what I’m doing!”

“Could we at least be through about it?” Shining asked.

“We’re completing this detail ahead of schedule.”

“You even know where we’re going?” Rock asked.

“If I didn’t, would we be moving, would we?”

Probably the first words of the hopelessly lost, Shining thought. Thundering grew increasingly vexed at the idiots he was saddled with. High Tower had to get all fire and brimstone: they couldn’t wash halls with toothbrushes or peel potatoes, no, they had to be on gremlin patrol!

After a year of classes and exercises, even if this was a disciplinary action, Thundering was in command for the first time. He wasn’t going to let a couple of know nothing first years get in his way!

“Pick up the pace. We need to complete our circuit and meet the second search party within an hour.”

“If you insist,” Rock muttered under his breath. Shining would have only gotten them stranded up a mountain---Thundering appeared to be thoughtlessly leading them further into the woods. Before this night was over Thundering would probably lead them to Nightmare Moon, not gremlins.

A bush rustled when there was no breeze. That was too much for Luminous: “I keep telling you, I think we’re being followed.”

Thundering turned to face Luminous. Fury was in his eyes.

“For the last time…”

Thwack!

With a jerk he hit the ground, a dazed expression on his face. The three cadets stopped for a moment. “What was that?” Rock asked.

A rock sailed close to his head, hitting a tree behind him. Rock hit the ground. A familiar gibbering filled the air, one they had heard on recordings in class.

“Gremlins!” Shining called.

Four of them: smiling in the dim light, their rotting teeth glimmering. One of the made a war cry and charged at Shining. He dashed to one side, only to narrowly miss his head. The gremlin rammed into a tree, his comrades howling in laughter.

“What was that?” Shining yelped.

“A trap,” Rock replied.

“Gremlins don’t set traps, not this sophisticated I mean.”

They were confused by the tactics---namely the fact the gremlins were using any. Gremlin assaults usually consisted of them running up to you, gibbering and drooling. The level of professionalism displayed was astounding.

“Well, we’re dealing with the gifted class then,” Rock yelled back. His training on Poseidon Island came back to him as if he was still on the training ground.

Rock, at least, had some idea of what to do. He’d faced situations like this in the guard, in the Everfree hunting changelings or the like. A gremlin was laughing its head off in front of him. It darted around, taunting him. So he didn’t move. He could take him easily. Nothing he hadn’t faced before.

Of course, there were several other earth ponies with him when that happened. They would have been standing together in pairs to ensure that they couldn‘t teleport too close. There was just one of him. His fellow students were preoccupied. He felt incomplete.

Luminous was scrambling for cover. Two more rocks had rained down on him, and he raced to put a tree behind him and their source. Over his shoulder he fired two blasts of a telekinesis spell.

“Stand back!”

Shining created a bubble around himself. He focused on charging it to its limit. Soon as the gremlins came within range he discharged it. It was the most powerful magical attack he had been taught.

This was an effective technique to combat large groups of enemies with three principal problems: it worked best in cascade sequence if everyone was standing together (they weren’t), burst their shields at the same time (they didn’t) or even had shields up in the first place (just the one). Both sides were scattered to the winds.

“What was that?” Rock yelped. He looked around for the enemy or his compatriots. He saw neither. After a second Shining lurched from the bushes, panting. He was easy prey for a gremlin, who knocked him out cold.

So, yes, it was a bigger challenge than he thought. When the gremlin was too busy laughing its rear off to notice Rock struck. It swung upwards, laughing harder. Rock bounded after it and got knocked back for his trouble.

Everything went black.

From behind the tree Luminous froze. Instantly he dropped down on his stomach. Fortunately, the undisciplined gremlins were more pleased with their new captives than they were at looking for him. There was a small group of them. Just by himself Luminous didn’t feel confident at mounting a rescue attempt.

He hated himself for the thought. He could imagine Rock or Shining give him grief over his cowardice. The gremlins heaved them both onto an improvised litter and began to drag them back, singing a tuneless song of praise. Slowly Luminous crept after them. If he ran now he would have no idea of where they went, rendering him useless to any rescue party.

So like a snake he followed the gremlins. They came to a cavern; Luminous managed to find a hollow to crawl in and watch. There were too many to risk a frontal assault. Getting himself captured or killed would have helped no one. So there was no choice but to play the waiting game.

Slowly the world faded into view again. Something skittered into sight and skittered quickly away. Shining shook his head, realizing for the first time he was tied up. Rock was to his left, Thundering to his right. Something was on his horn, arresting his magical talents. It felt like his horn had fallen asleep.

They were in a cavern. It was cold and dark. Shining had no idea how long he was out for. Luminous wasn’t here: hopefully he got away. Shining struggled against the ropes for a moment before giving up.

He realized for the first time he was upside down. To his right was Rock, unconscious but clearly not far behind him in waking up. Thundering was to his left, out cold but still breathing. If Shining hoped to keep it that way he knew that he would have to get Thundering to a doctor very, very quickly.

He was still alive. Maybe the gremlins had a horrible fate in store for them. Gremlins taking pony prisoners had never occurred before in history, but this was a night of many precedents. He breathed slowly, trying to rid himself of the thoughts of possible torture.

Shining heard a thumping. Around the path came the gremlin king. Impossible for anything that big to be anything else. He smiled a rotten smile. “Hello there, my little pony.”

Shining said nothing at first. He wasn’t obligated to give anything more than his name (seeing as how he was a cadet and not in the guard) to a hostile power, though exactly where the gremlins fit into Equestrian protocol was a little confusing.

“Hello,” Shining decided was a neutral thing to say.

The king studied him for a moment. “So, they sent a cadet, and not a senior one. You really think that little about us. I’m insulted.”

“You’re supposed to still be hibernating.”

“It got warm early this year,” the king said. He leaned in close and chuckled. “We‘ve been enjoying it.”

“So what? A small colony of gremlins runs amok---we still have the paralysis spell,” Shining replied. He forced himself to sound righteously angry, afraid what the next twist to the story would be.

The king chuckled. “Another thing we’ve been working on. I think you’re going to be disappointed with what you find.”

He removed the covering from Shining’s horn. It felt good to feel the rippling of magic across his horn.

“Go ahead,” he invited Shining. “Put me to sleep.”

Shining closed his eyes and concentrated. With every drop of strength in his body he tried to create the most powerful spell he had created in his life. The king stood there, not moving, waiting and growing bored.

A bolt of magical energy struck him dead on. He was still standing.

He smiled. “Good try,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s not enough.”

Shining’s eyes widened. Even the most gifted gremlin trailed behind the most weakest unicorn. As turns of fate went, this was devastating.

“Once we spread this to the other gremlin hordes, then I hope you’re prepared for a lot of fun every ten years.” He glanced back at the gremlins behind him. “We’re moving out.”

The king walked off, laughing. Behind him the other gremlins followed, giggling. Shining wrestled against the ropes for a moment before giving up. He just hung there, waiting for whatever came next. Rock woke up. Rock glanced around the cavern, struggling against the ropes for a second before giving up.

“So,” he said, “we’re in deeper trouble than we thought, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” Shining admitted.

“Where’s Luminous?”

“I don’t know,” Shining replied. “Not here. I hope he got away.”

Rock grunted in approval. If he was captured separately, well, the poor fool probably got treated a little differently than them. Nopony had been taken captive by the gremlins before, and if tonight was any indication he doubted that they had suddenly grown hospitable.

“I have to admit,” Rock said, “I almost expected this.”

“Let’s not start that now,” Shining said. He tried to move his head to see if he could tease apart the ropes with his horn…no. He would have to have been a master contortionist, and his horn had been
blunted anyway.

“Why not? We’ve got the time on our hooves.”

Shining strained to hear something smaller and definitely different than Rock’s voice.

“Do you hear that?”

Rock shut up for a moment. “Yeah,” he said.

Shining tried to tell where the sound had come from. It didn’t sound like a gremlin was walking in but something smaller. A familiar voice called from down the tunnel.

“Shining?”

“Luminous? We’re here!”

“Shining?” Luminous yelled. “Where are you? Are you alright?”

“At the end of the tunnel is a cavern. That’s where we are.”

Luminous rounded the corner. He gasped.

“You’re upside down!”

“You haven’t gone blind. I’m so proud of you,” Rock replied.

“Do you want me to cut you down?”

“No,” Rock replied, “we want you to join us! Get us down, you idiot!”

Luminous found the rope and managed to lower them onto the cavern floor. Within seconds he had freed them.

“What happened?” Luminous asked. “I ran when I saw the gremlins.”

“Our hero, fillies and gentlecolts,” Rock murmured. No less than he expected, really.

“I saw them drag you off,” Luminous continued, his voice growing noticeably strained. “I hid and watched them take you down. I followed them to the cave and waited for them to go.”

“How many were there?” Shining asked.

“At least fifteen, twenty at most. Their king was with them.”

“I’ve made his acquaintance,” Shining said. “He said they were immune to the paralysis spell.”

“You’re taking that at face value?” Rock asked.

“He let me test that proposition. It doesn’t look like they’re lying.”

Rock cursed. Nothing he didn’t think was impossible, but at the same time unwelcome.

“So what are we going to do?” Luminous asked.

“Get help,” Shining said. “Get back to the academy.”

“If they’re immune to magic, what good will that do?” Rock asked.

“Do we have a choice? We can‘t go all the way to Canterlot to get the princess, now can we?” Shining asked. “Luminous, how do we get out of here?”

Luminous nodded. “You can find your way by the construction of the tunnel: if it looks like it was scrapped rather than dug you’re close to the surface. There‘s only a couple of branches and two smaller chambers.”

“How deep are we?”

“Not very,” Luminous said. “I think most the gremlins have gone, though they may have left sentries or some may have returned. I think they dug this place fairly recently.”

Luminous studied the cavern some more. This was identical to shallow depth mining in reasonably loose soil, worthless for serious gemstone mining, but he could tell that the gremlins would find it useful. Though it did look like there was something here they were looking for.

“Fine: take point. Rock, follow him. I don’t know how much magic they’re still susceptible to. Telekinesis definitely, but be careful of using any other spells.”

“What about Thundering?” Luminous asked.

Shining manipulated Thundering onto his back with his horn. He strained under his weight. Thundering groaned slightly: hopefully he could keep it down until they were safe.

“I’ll handle him. Let’s move.”

The first chamber they found was full of mead and other accoutrements stolen from Hidalgo Springs. The gremlins were setting in for the long haul, and they were preparing for numbers. A few of the walls looked like a half hearted attempt at expanding them had been undertaken and abandoned. If word didn’t get out, fast, the gremlins would cease to be a minor nuisance.

A few clumps of Fool’s Iron were scattered throughout the cavern floor. Shining kicked one out of the way. Fool’s Iron was notoriously commonplace, but it felt like the information needed to connect to something, like half a sentence in his mind. The group quickly sped through the tunnels. The reached the surface, stood for a moment to decide where they would go, and ran off.

Chapter 5

It was later in the day than Shining would have liked: the sun was up, not far in the sky but clear of the horizon. The sky was bird’s egg blue and clear, and it was just starting to get warm. They had been running for probably an hour by now.

“Any idea of where we are?” Shining asked.

“Hopelessly lost, more or less,” Luminous said.

Every mountain looked indistinguishable from the one that came before. In the distance a railroad track was visible snaking its way through the mountains. At least now they were facing east which would make their blunderings only slightly more rational.

There was a small stream flowing nearby. Shining’s thirst grew, slowly overcoming all of his other urges and nearly his sense of duty. If they didn’t get the chance to drink now he didn’t know if they would be able to rehydrate.

“Wait,” Shining ordered. He got down on his forelegs, sliding Thundering onto the ground. He was getting heavy. “We need a moment.”

“Time’s wasting,” Rock said.

“We have to rest,” Shining replied. It was unlikely that the time spent upside down and unconscious constituted a good night’s sleep. His limbs ached and Thundering grew heavier every second. Any moment now and he’d collapse.

Rock had half a mind to speed on ahead but without his companions he doubted that he would be of much use. “Fine,” he agreed, sitting down. “We can afford five minutes.”

Luminous went straight for the water and lustily gulped it down. Shining had a couple of sips, watching Rock sit like a petulant child. In the distance a train hooted as it sped along the tracks. A few Pegasus ponies were specks in the distance: couriers, likely. The world was going on with its life, blissfully unaware of the new threat brewing.

“How about we have a talk, take our minds off this for a moment,” Shining said. “Keep the coconut clear for awhile.”

“Well,” Rock said, “excuse me if an Equestria shaking emergency isn’t a good time for some male bonding!”

“Come on. I doubt they’ve overrun Canterlot by now,” Luminous said. “And my hoofs hurt.”

“The realm can remain imperilled long enough for us to catch our breath,” Shining added.

Rock sighed. “Well, what do you want, exactly?”

“Don’t know---maybe have the first real conversation we’ve had since the start, which is unusual seeing as how we room together.”

“Not for no good reason,” Rock said, facing Luminous. “He snores.”

“Really?” Luminous asked.

Rock nodded. “Sometimes I wonder if half of Equestria can’t hear him.”

Shining rolled his eyes. Okay, could they move the conversation away his little tics and towards something more practical.

“Well, you’re from Manehattan, right?” Shining asked.

Rock nodded. “Not from the nicer parts of it, might I add.”

All Shining knew of Manehattan was the nicer parts. When he went on his school graduation trip several months ago he was carefully warned to steer clear of certain quarters. The ponies from those condemned neighbours looked like they lived in the Everfree not a civilized Equestrian city.

“So, you see things a little differently,” Luminous said.

“Well, when your father decides that cider takes precedence over paying the rent, you kind of develop what you’d call a practical and less refined mindset,” Rock said. “My brother got out: he enlisted in the guard, so, having nothing better to do, I followd hm.”

“I almost wish I was in your shoes,” Luminous said. “My parents figured I would be wasting my talents, having to deal with the unenlightened.”

“They said that?” Shining asked.

“Implicitly,” Luminous replied. “Go on, Rock.”

“You know how there was a big hydra attack several months back?”

The other two cadets nodded. Made the Canterlot papers, who were always eager to exploit fear of magical monsters.

“Yeah, and I know that one of them earned a Crystal Star posthumously? He was in that group?” Luminous asked, the implication of Rock’s words stunning him after he opened his mouth. He felt quite stupid, but Rock gave him a sympathetic nod.

“He didn’t come back: I don‘t really think posthumous awards count,” Rock said. He let his gaze drift up to the clouds. The others spent a moment to contemplate his story.

“We almost ready?” Rock asked. “I just have to have a drink.”

Rock drifted down to the stream and had a few gulps. He pulled his head out, feeling refreshed in a way he hadn’t in some time. Shining could feel his strength return; Thundering felt lighter as he propped him onto his back.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Luminous said. He studied his hooves for a moment, trying to think if there was anything he could add to that. A picaresque life of deprivation was inconceivable to him.

“Seeing as how I am a decadent Canterlot pony and all,” Luminous began, “I got fed up with the cushy life and wanted something…more.”

Luminous explained how his parents were involved with ceremonial armour during the major Canterlot celebrations. He was always more fascinated with the guards who wore the armour than the armour itself.

“My parents keep thinking I’m going to come home any minute now and resume the family business.”

“Even after getting your cutie mark?” Shining asked.

“Especially,” Luminous said.

“A cutie mark is a little hard to reason with.”

“You need to meet my parents,” Luminous said dryly. “We’re always just one step away from the big strike, my dad always said. You just have to keep hitting the rocks until you find what you‘re looking for.”

Luminous chuckled. “Or just keep striking them anyway, hoping you’ll turn granite in gold through sheer effort.”

Luminous bitterly stared in the direction of Canterlot. He stared along the rows of mountains were the mines were located, remembering the times his father tried to spark his inspiration with trips into the grimy, dark abyss. Every time he went down all he wanted was to stampede right out; if he could, he would have tunnelled back to the surface with his bare hooves.

“No matter what I do, they just think that I’m itching at the chance to be just like them.” Luminous had a final slurp of water. “I’m good.”

“I don’t know,” Shining said. “For all I know I might be Celestia’s student if my talents didn’t lie with the guard. Magic never appealed to me.”

Twilight took to that like a duck to water. Shining had an appreciation for magic, but was blown away by her talents and devotion. The excitement of having won Celestia’s eye had yet to simmer down.

“I’ve always wanted to serve the country,” Shining said. “I always wanted

“Maybe you will make captain someday,” Luminous suggested. Rock found himself nodding in agreement. Shining thought of Twilight, his parents, Cadence, everything that brought him to this moment. He was not going to let them down.

Shining rose to his feet. They had a job to do.

“Are we good?”

“Yeah,” Rock said. Luminous nodded. They helped heave Thundering onto his back, who was beginning to gurgle, which they took to be an encouraging sign.

“Come on then,” Shining said, leading the charge.

Two unicorn cadets, either the morning patrol or their search party, were found lying under a tree, dazed. A brown unicorn with a firefly cutie mark and a pale gold unicorn. Both of them had taken rocks to the head. Judging from the damp blood on their brows it hadn’t been long since they were left there. Shining felt their pulses and their breath against his hoof.

“They’ll make it,” he announced. Maybe the gremlin’s vanguard had passed by and conked them out, leaving them behind out of laziness or devotion to a more immediate cause. They weren’t that menacing, not yet, for which Shining breathed a small prayer.

Luminous and Rock sighed. Shining shook off Thundering and laid him on the ground. Immediately he could have seen where the gremlins had gone. Their paths were thick and rapid. He could tell how many were moving and where they were going. Difficult to tell how many they were dealing with but it couldn’t have been more than thirty.

“He’s coming round!” Rock called.

Shining raced over to the cadet. The brown unicorn’s head was rolling as he reawakened. He moaned and began to rub his temples.

“Its okay,” Luminous, “we’re fellow cadets. The night patrol.”

“What’s your name?” Rock asked.

“Cadet Brown Coat,” the pony replied.

“What happened here?” Shining asked.

Brown Coat thought for a moment. “Gremlins…we got hit by them. Golden Rod went down in a flash. I don‘t remember much, so I must have followed soon after.”

Brown Coat frowned in shame.

“I tried the paralysis spell,” Brown Coat said. “It did nothing.”

“That’s something we know,” Shining sighed. “Its not going to work against them.”

Brown Coat’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. It was an expression of surprise and anger. “How?”

“They found a way around it. We don’t know any more than that,” Shining said. “We were on night patrol. We ran into them before you did.”

“You guys were taking too long,” Brown Coat explained, “so High Tower sent us out early. Thanks a lot for that, too.”

“Not our fault: we were…indisposed,” Luminous replied.

There was a moan from behind them. Thundering’s eyes opened. “He’s awake!” Rock declared. Shining raced over. Thundering’s head rolled on his neck and he moaned. His eyes snapped open and he furrowed his brow.

“What…what mango tango logarithm?”

“What’s with him?” Rock asked.

Shining remembered something Twilight had described to him: aphasia. For some reason he couldn’t speak, though to him it would appear that he was speaking.

“He’s fine,” Shining said, “ability to speak notwithstanding.”

“A Hoorepa hoorepa a num num!”

“You said it pal,” Rock snorted.

“Who’s that?” Brown Coat asked.

“Our fearless leader,” Rock replied, “though obviously not an indestructible one.”

Brown Coat laughed. “So what are we going to do, then?”

Shining needed to think for a moment. Too much information to process, or rather, he had already processed the information and needed to come to terms both with the fact he made the decision and what the decision entailed.

If the gremlins weren’t stopped, or at least slowed, here, what were they going to do? Maybe they wouldn’t be a threat to Equestria, but another complication, one that could over time become corrosive. There was no choice: just a hard bit to bite and a job to do. Nothing to do now but to do it.

“Luminous, Brown Coat,” Shining barked. For the first time since their ordeal began he was assuming command, rather than being the voice of the obvious. It was like another pony had slipped into his skin.

Both ponies snapped to attention. Shining cleared his throat, finding the commands he would issue to be easier to say than he thought. He didn’t know immediately whether this was a good thing or bad: was this the right thing to do, or not? He didn’t have the luxury of following orders or getting a second opinion.

“Get Golden Rod and Thundering to safety. Rock and I will take on the gremlins,” Shining ordered.

“You can’t be serious,” Luminous said.

I am. Dear Celestia, I am that serious. “They’re too weak to help,” Shining explained. “Rock has experience in anti-magic warfare. You need to get those ponies to safety, Luminous.”

Luminous nodded. He hadn’t been the best guard he could have been, so he accepted the responsibility with dedication. “What about you and Rock?”

“We’ll…hold them off,” Shining said. The resolute part of his mind was out shouting the part of him that wanted to scream, flee for the hills and curl up in a ball.

“Both of you?” Brown Coat looked like he was about ready to laugh.

“We’ll improvise,” Shining said. “Its gotten us this far.”

Rock and Shining began to trot away. Luminous felt paralyzed for a second. He fought the weight that was impressing his tongue. He had to swallow his fear and just say it.

“Wait,” Luminous said. Rock and Shining glanced back. “Something I noticed in the cavern: I think they found a vein of Fool’s Iron.”

“Are you sure?” Shining asked. It was fairly common in places in the mountains. Knowledge about it, however, was supposed to be strictly pony. An uncomfortable development if there ever was one.

Luminous nodded. “It exists very close to the surface. Not hard to get to really, and once you know what its purpose is all you need to do is crumble it up.”

“Okay,” Shining said, “thank you. That really helps.”

“It explains a bit,” Rock said, “like how they’re not going down as easy as we would hope.”

That meant his magical options were limited. Obviously the paralysis spell, or any of the higher level spells he had learned so far, wouldn’t work. Where was Twilight when he needed her?

“All right: get back to the academy, raise the alarm. We’ll be back.”

Rock and Shining dashed off. Luminous watched them go, hearing Golden Rod groan. He, Brown Coat and Thundering shuffled back to the academy.

A minute or so later Golden Rod was reasonably lucid. Luminous’ conscience was biting into him with very sharp teeth. Following Shining’s orders was the right thing to do…but following his orders had brought them out here. He made his decision.

“Take him!”

Without waiting for a reply Luminous dumped a confused Golden Rod onto Thundering’s back and sped off after his fellow cadets.

Chapter 6

The gremlins were dancing. They were circling a fire, trophies of their latest raid laid at the foot of their king. So far their ambitions were very small: a few farming implements and a barrel of mead.

A small forest creature was roasting over a spit. The king pried off large chunks and ate them. The songs the gremlins were singing were without melody or rhytm, but they were still in his honour, the wisest king gremlins ever had.

Rock and Shining crept slowly to the rim of the ravine. Fortunately there had been no sentries, or any indication that the gremlins were afraid of being discovered.

“So,” Rock asked, “how are we doing this?”

“Carefully,” Shining said. They crept down from the rim of the gully on their stomachs.

“Yeah, I think we’ve been trying that all day. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think its working.”

Point taken, Shining thought. Half of what he was doing was instinctive, what he had learned in books plus his best guesses as to how to handle the situation.

“Am I doing well? By 36th standards, I mean?” Shining asked. For the first time in Rock’s career he had to look into the eyes of his commanding officer and assure him that he was doing the right thing. It was a very unique experience.

The gremlin king laughed as he downed a bucket of mead. Some of the smaller gremlins whined and pranced around his side, and he sent them off with a mighty back hoof.

“I think you’re doing all right, for the situation,” Rock said. “I mean, the situation isn’t great.”

“It’s the worst you’ve been through?” Shining asked.

“Absolutely not,” Rock laughed. “I’ve been in bad situations, not stupid ones.”

The gremlins cheered. They danced to music created by pounding on overturned buckets and empty barrels. A small pile of powdered Fool’s Iron was being dumped on the ground; a couple of gremlins playfully rolled in it. Slinking away in disgrace would only allow them to grow stronger.

“I think it’s a little late to desert now,” Rock said. “We’re in now, all the way.”

“I was afraid of that,” Shining said.

He peered in closer: he had noticed something. Some of the dust around the gremlin’s horns had become duller, less sparkly. The gremlins either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Chances were they could replenish their supply later---this was a window of opportunity, narrow as it was.

“I think some of its worn off.”

Shining nodded. “This might be easier than we think.”

“I believe that’s the attitude that’s gotten us into this mess,” Rock said.

“Good thing its one that’s going to get us out.”

Shining had a mischievous smile on his face. Rock returned it. There were worse ponies to be stuck with when facing a poorly contrived suicide mission.

“Ah, screw it, let’s just kick tail,” Rock said.

He grasped a rock and held it up. Shining nodded, telekinetically giving it a mighty blast. It was aimed squarely at the horn of a nearby gremlin. The creature froze for a moment after impact, keeling over to one side. The other gremlins froze and looked back in the direction from which the stone had flown.

Shining and Rock stood to their full light, trying to look as intimidating as possible. Okay, the best the could do was to look less ridiculous. The gremlin horde growled, and then stampeded after them bellowing their war cry.

Shining aimed carefully for the gremlins that were covered in the least amount of Fool’s Iron: a couple fell into sleep, others just stood dazed. Rock’s hooves flew and in an instant he had three down. Not a bad start.

Three down, a small mob to go. Rock made progress fighting his way through them, Shining behind him to take down the vulnerable ones. It took a lot of energy to counter Fool’s Iron.

A gremlin grabbed him from behind, knocking him down. His horn was practically dripping with Fool’s Iron. Shining braced for the inevitable assault, clenching his eyes shut and gritting his teeth. Instead, for several precious seconds, there was nothing. The gremlin fell down, falling instantly into unconsciousness.

Shining noticed a providential rock tumble at his feet. “Where did that come from?” Rock asked.

“Up here!”

“Luminous?”

“Right behind you,” he called. He was at the rim, standing proudly.

“Appreciate your enthusiasm, but this is totally not the time!” Shining yelled.

“Thundering was well enough to take Golden Rod, and…”

Luminous narrowly missed being brained by a rock. He returned fire with a paralysis spell: his attacker had only enough Fool’s Iron on him to slow him down, but with a well aimed hoof Rock knocked him back.

“I can’t just leave you behind!”

Luminous kicked a rock into the air, blasting it at the gremlin king. A smaller gremlin leapt and took the shot for him. The king was alone on the field---but he was the king. He hadn’t had the chance to exert himself.

“I’m a generous man. Let’s just leave your actions as ‘horribly misguided,’ shall we?”

Two dozen gremlins lay on the ground, some moaning, the rest unconscious. The three cadets stood in line facing the king. The king stood there, watching them pant and wheeze. He was inhaling slowly, saving his energy for the fight.

“This is going to be interesting,” Rock said.

“Let’s have our resident prodigy send him home, Luminous said. “Right?”

Luminous looked back at Shining with worried eyes. Shining was supposed to be the magic prodigy, after all. “I need a moment,” Shining said. “I don’t feel strong enough.”

“Oh, great,” Rock said.

“We can hold him off if we coordinate,” Luminous said.

The gremlin king smiled widely as he savoured their confusion. Rock gritted his teeth as he prepared for the fight of his life. Luminous stood ready as well.

“I hope we can hold him off,” Luminous quietly added.

“Hang on,” Shining said. He felt the magic return, gradually. Nowhere near enough to be a threat to the gremlin king, but he did have a plan---a stupid plan, but a plan. “Do something about the Fool’s Iron!”

Rock and Luminous looked at each other, shrugged, and ran in opposite directions around the gremlin king. Both of them hurled rocks at the horn of the gremlin king, trying to knock off as much of the Fool’s Iron as possible. It was difficult and inefficient---what Shining needed was a way to overwhelm the limited protection the dust offered.

“I’ve got an idea,” Shining said.

“Great,” Rock said. “Let’s hear it.”

“Luminous,” Shining said. “You remember what we did on the playing field?”

Luminous nodded. His stomach began to sink as he remembered the occasion, and he became more afraid of Shining that of the gremlin king.

“Well…how do you feel about trying again? It‘s something big to ask of you, I know, but we‘re not exactly replete with options here.”

“Not terribly good,” Luminous said, “but if that’s what it would take…”

Shining levitated Luminous off the ground. Luminous sighed, hoping that his career in the guard wouldn’t consist entirely of this. He was slowly beginning to accept that his fate may be to die this night, but did it have to be so…unconventional?

“Are you kidding me?” Rock yelled.

“Luminous, trying a basic shield charge.”

“What?” Luminous yelled.

“Do it!”

“What for?”

“We can overwhelm the Fool’s Iron by concentrating our energies on a point blank burst,” Shining explained, realizing even he had difficult accepting what he was proposing. He imagined a second Shining standing just beside him, frowning in anger and confusion.

“Oh, this is just rich,” the king laughed. “You really are the stupidest ponies I’ve had the displeasure of encountering!”

Reckless and foolhardy? Perhaps. Stupid? Luminous made his decision in a heartbeat. None of them said anything. Shining gritted his teeth, concentrating on precise aiming. Luminous breathed slowly, making his peace with the universe. All right: he came here to make a difference. He just wish it went differently.

“Luminous?” Shining called. Luminous nodded: at least this a novel way to leave this world. He gave Shining a nod.

“I’m ready,” he called. “For princess and country, I’m ready.”

“Build up the best shield charge that you can.”

Luminous closed his eyes. Around him he could feel a shield growing. He focused on making it the strongest shield he could manage.

The king roared and charged at them. Shining aimed carefully and let Luminous fly. Luminous discharged his shield within inches of the gremlin king’s face. For a moment the light was blinding. Eventually sight was restored to their eyes.

The king stopped laughing. He noticed his knees had begun to fail him. He tottered over and collapsed on his right side. Within a minute he was sawing logs.

Luminous trotted on for a couple of paces. “Victory!” he shouted before he collapsed in exhaustion.

Shining sagged to his knees. “I hereby declare this situation contained.”

“I concur,” Rock said. He staggered over to Shining and they both gave a mighty hoof bump. So mighty, in fact, it appeared to wake up the king.

“Oh come on!” Shining moaned.

“Use the paralysis spell, or something!”

“I don’t even know if magic is going to work! I mean, if he can shrug that off, what else can he endure?”

Rock steeled himself for the fight. The king was still unsteady, and this would work in his favour. He began to run. He met the king halfway with a mighty kick to his horn, which disoriented him. The king staggered back, finding the ground beneath his feet was becoming treacherous. He began to fall backwards, and was unable to arrest the movement.

The king tumbled down a mine shaft half concealed by branches and leaves. He roared as he fell to unknowable depths; his voice eventually was as silent as the blackness he had fallen into.

“Did I…”

“Yes,” Shining said. Shining crept over to Luminous, tossing him over his shoulder. Rock stood for a moment, stunned.

“Well? Come on, I can only carry one of you.”

The three staggered away feeling victorious and very, very tired.

Chapter 7

“You three did good,” High Tower said. “Princess Celestia relays her congratulations for going above and beyond, and all that formal academy stuff you’re probably sick off. Point is you did good.”

The three cadets beamed. It felt excellent to be in the dean’s office for all the right reasons. Thundering, begrudgingly, gave his thanks and congratulations after they were sent to the infirmary to be checked out. Apparently the twerp wasn’t so bad after all.

Exactly how the gremlin situation was going to be handled was up to Celestia: probably Tartarus, maybe one of Equestria‘s lesser known quarantine zones. Now the gremlins had to be handled differently: they were capable of learning, and shame on Equestria for learning that lesson that hard way.

“Shining, you did well son. Only thing we have an issue with your repeated use of a fellow cadet as ordinance,” High Tower said. “Please get out of the habit.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Her Royal Highness Princess Cadence…”

He noticed Shining seemed to perk up at her name. High Tower decided to ignore it, for now. Good that the lad was committed to the monarchy. His aspirations seemed a little…unusual. High Tower hoped they were at least realistic.

“Will be presenting the award during her next guard inspection.”

Dear Celestia: Shining looked ready to melt. High Tower rolled his eyes and swallowed his urge to revisit his youthful tendency to make smart ass comments. He decided to wrap things up: he was afraid of what he’d say if they stuck around any longer.

“That is all. Dismissed.”

The three saluted and filed out of the office. High Tower leaned over his desk and thought for a moment. Did he just meet the future Canterlot guard captain? High Tower shook his head. Let’s not get presumptuous, he reminded himself.

“Slow down,” Rock said.

Shining was nearly skipping ahead of them like a little filly. Some of the other cadets were giving them funny looks: okay, they were the heroes of the hour, but still it was a little embarrassing.

“Sorry,” Shining said, feeling suddenly light-headed.

“She’s not here yet, lover boy,” Luminous teased.

Shining’s smile grew more wide at the thought. Rock sighed.

“Any way you can chase your roommate out for a night?” Rock asked Luminous. “I dread what those two will be up to.”

“So long as they keep it down,” Luminous said, “I personally couldn’t care less. Best of luck to you.”

Rock sighed. “Air out the room when you’re finished.”

Shining let them have their fun. Nothing could knock him down now: he felt a hundred hooves tall and made of iron.

“What are you thinking?” Rock asked.

“Well,” Shining said, “we could go find someplace to celebrate.”

“Where?”

Shining shrugged. “The Mare, maybe?”

“You’re kidding?” Luminous said. “After what we went through?”

Shining smiled. “Maybe we’d get away with it now.”

Rock and Luminous both looked sick. “Kidding!” Shining said.

“Thank Celestia,” Rock said.

The three laughed and walked on.

Herding chickens during an earthquake would be fun compared to this. Somehow, all these formerly mature cadets had turned into a mob of school foals. They seemed incapable of standing and waiting for instructions, they swarmed like a flock of bees. Shining, golden sophomore bars on his uniform, bellowed for attention.

“Everyone who has arrived and is part of group three formation, please identify yourselves! Group three, over here!”

The cadets began to cluster around him. They babbled their names all at the same time. Shining struggled with quill and paper to keep up. “One at a time, please!”

One by one he managed to check all the names off. There were still a latecomer or two, but more trains would arrive any second now. He looked around to see how the cadets were distributed amongst the waiting proctor cadets. He couldn’t have been this clueless on his first day, right?

“All right: assemble over there,” Shining pointed to an open area just in front of the station, “and await the command to move. Understood?”

The ponies shuffled off. Shining sighed: when this day was over he’d feel a lot better. From today on he would be responsible for these innocents.

One pony staggered off of the train. He paused for a moment, almost staring at something in front of him that he alone could see. Shining walked over, lowering his face into the newcomer’s.

“You’re supposed to identify yourself with the formation leader.”

“Yes…sorry. Uh…Star Rising?”

The last name on Shining’s list: he made a quick flick with the quill and scratched him off. He turned to face the pony, who had wisely started to regard him as more venerable than Celestia.

“Group three is assembling over there.”

Star Rising swallowed, flinging his bag over his shoulder and began to walk to join the other cadets. He walked slowly, hesitantly, each step careful and measured.

“You’ll be all right.”

Star Rising’s face brightened. “Really?”

“Move!”

Star Rising scampered. An expression of terror was in his eyes. Shining couldn’t help but smile. The order for the cadets to march to the academy (finally) came. Shining managed to get his pack to shuffle towards the academy.