The Adventures of Thunder Strike and Ink Blot

I could not be more excited about this day. Things were changing for the better, I was sure.

I continued to follow the guard in golden armor as he led me down the brilliantly decorated halls. I tugged along a rope in my mouth that towed along a cart carrying my stuff. I had not brought much; just one bag for some clothes (if I ever needed them), a bag for all my journalism supplies, one for some other useless knick-knacks, and of course, the large cage that held my little pet rat, Caesar.

As we trotted down the hall, I could not help but glance at all the fancy tapestries, and stained-glass windows, some of the views out those windows, the paintings, some other palace residents as they passed by.

The last couple of days have been quite a rush for me. After years of writing for the Canterlot Gazette, and doing a pretty fine job if I may say so, the two head editors had finally decided to arrange a bigger assignment for me.

They decided to send a reporter into palace to report on the dealings there, to keep an eye on Celestia, Luna, and their subjects, to find anything news-worthy. The editors also seemed to be interested in the growing conflict with the Changelings since the recent outbreak in which they nearly destroyed Canterlot.

Since that day, I had barely been able to sleep. It was really a terrifying idea, that the foul beasts had descended upon our fare city. For all I knew, any pony around me could be one of them! Should they come after me, there is no way I would be able to defend myself.

But I was not too worried anymore. Now I was in the palace, surrounded by skilled and highly-trained guards whom I knew would die before they let anything happen to their people. I felt pretty safe.

I still remembered that bright sunny morning when I had packed all my stuff, and met outside the palace with Princess Celestia herself. She welcomed me with a warm smile. She said not to be afraid, and to explore the palace as I pleased to do my job.

I felt much better about the move then. Before I was afraid of perhaps breaking into a forbidden wing or some private place of the princess or her relatives. Now, that barely worried me.

She had one guard show me to my room from then. I followed the said guard in. I must admit though; he was pretty intimidating. He wore no smile, and looked very serious. We barely spoke a word as we walked through the palace. And when we did speak, it was him just pointing out a few important sites as we passed. He spoke in a very uptight and commanding voice.

Come to think of it, all the guards were like that pretty much.

I barely said anything, other than things like "okay" and "cool" and "nice".

That still did not stop me from getting excited about being a guest at the palace, working on getting good stories to send to the editors for the gazette. I was like a spy. As long as nothing went wrong, I would be stationed here for the next two years! Words could not describe how exhilarated I was, and for a Pony like me, who is almost always good with words, that is saying a lot.

"Alright." The guard finally said as he came to a hault. "This is your room here." He turned and gestured to his side a fine wooden door in the wall. He stepped back to let me in. I dropped the rope and opened the door.

It was quite nice inside, if quaint. The floor was a finely waxed floor, with stone walls as nice as the rest of the palace. There was not much to decorate the room. There was a wide, comfy-looking bed, a desk, a bathtub, a dresser with a mirror, and a window that when I opened it up, I could see the palace gardens down below, and the towers on the wall on the other side.

This was so generous of the princess and her staff to arrange this nice room for me. I had not been expecting such a nice room. They probably treated all their guests this way, but I still felt a sense of pride come to me.

"I trust you like it here?" The guard asked.

"Oh, y-yeah!" I stuttered as I turned back to him. "It's wonderful! Thank you!"

"I am glad to here that." The guard said, still with no smile.

I walked back out the room to push the cart of my stuff inside and start unpacking.

"Now just to remind you," The guard continued, "you will not be supervised. You are free to explore the palace and come and go as you please. Any places that are off limits are clearly indicated. You will be responsible for your own meals. We recommend the dining hall for staff, or the restaurants outside. Your mail will be delivered to your room. There are two keys to this room on the desk over there. Other than that, just try not to disturb any pony."

"Alright, great!" I smiled. "Thanks for- uh- showing me the ropes... Appreciate it."

"Your welcome." He nodded. His voice sounded slightly more friendly this time. He turned to the door. "I'll be getting back to my station. Have a nice day."

"Uh, thanks! You too!" I started taking my bags off the cart and laid them on the bed, ready to open them up and unpack.

"Hey, Ink Blot, was it?" The guard's voice suddenly sounded again, startling me. My head spun around. He was facing me again. "One more thing."

"Huh? Yeah?"

"If I may, would you like a little suggestion for your next report?"

I instantly became all ears. "Yes, sure. Please!" I nodded eagerly. "What is it?"

"Some new guards are being recruited for the force," He said. "Their graduation ceremony is at the guard barracks in one hour from now. Civilians are welcome to attend."

A smile spread to my face. "Sounds great! Sure. I'll check it out. Thank you!"

"Absolutely," he nodded again. "Have a good day." And with that, he trotted out and shut the door behind him.

I turned back and started unpacking my things. First I picked Caesar's cage up off the cart, and gently placed him up on the desk. He and the cage had been jostled by the traveling, but he seemed okay. He was not hurt.

"Alright, Caesar, little buddy!" I piped as I set him down. "Looks like things are going great. This is our new home, eh?"

The little grey rate stood up on his hind legs and looked up and me, and let out a few squeaks.

"So, hows about you get out and stretch your legs?" I lifted the latch on his cage door, and he scurried out onto the desk. I was not worried about him running away. I liked me too much. I treated him too nicely.

He jumped down on the stool, then to the floor, and started wandering around the strange new floor. As he did, I went through my bags to get out stuff for his cage; more hay for the floor, his exercise wheel, his tiny chew toys, his water bottle, and his nut dispenser.

It really was a nice thing to have Caesar around. He was the best company I had. Barely any pony seemed to want to be near me. All through school, and even later at the Gazette, most other ponies seemed to think I was just a short little loser. They all pushed me around and talked down to me, never really seemed to want to have a decent conversation with me. It really sucked.

What was wrong with me? Was I really that unlikable? I had always tried to be as nice a pony as I could be.

Well, at least the editors believed in me enough to give me this assignment. And again, I still had Caesar, and my parents to a lesser extent. As long as Caesar was around, I had someone to talk to, to share my ideas and frustrations with, someone who would not take advantage of me or push me around.

Sometimes though, I feel like he longs to be with other rats.

"Ya know what?" I smirked at him. "While we're here, you might run into a pretty little lady rat, huh?"

His head jerked up at me as I spoke, but then looked away when I was done. He dashed over to the bed and scurried up the blanket.

"Pretty nice room here, huh?" I continued as I went on unpacking. I placed my papers, ink bottles, fountain pens, and stamps up on the desk. "I really didn't think we'd get such a nice place, did you?"

He had run to one edge of the bed to sniff the air and look over the edge.

"I was kind of expecting us to get something like a wooden floor with nothing in the room but like a pile of hay for a bed and a pool. Maybe a desk if we were lucky. I was kind of expecting that most of the accessories we would have to bring ourselves."

Caesar let out a little squeak.

I giggled as I tried to imagine what he was saying. "You're right. I should give Princess Celestia a little more credit than that." I took out my clothes, both my casual vests and my more elegant ones for special occasions, and slipped them into the drawers of the dresser. Next, I got my shaving, hoove-filing, and mane-cutting supplies out on top of the dresser, and slid some soap and shampoo beside the bath tub.

I did not really have anything else to do or anywhere else to be, and I was not hungry, so I figured I may as well head to the guard barracks. It would be a good idea anyway since I did not know where to find the barracks.

"Alright. I'm off to the barracks," I said to Caesar as snatched the one of the two keys of the desk. "Be back soon. Don't leave the room."

My little rat squeaked and continued to scurry along the bed. I knew he would be okay here alone. I locked the door behind me and went off to find the barracks.

Even as I made my way down to the barracks, my thoughts were already jogging about what I would say in my article.

I would probably mention how the guards were preparing to face off against the new threat of the changelings, for one idea.

At one point, I stopped and pulled my pocket notebook from my vest pocket, a little fountain pen in the spiral, and jotted down a little note on that, holding the pen in my mouth.

Preparing to fight changelings?

And then I thought maybe I would see if I can get a quick interview with the sergeant in charge of this set of recruits. Surely he could give some insight on the situation with the changelings, and maybe talk about how well this new platoon fared in training and how he expected them to do in the field. Interviews were always gold mines for reporters. I scribbled down again.

Talk to sergeant.

It was a good thing I always carried around that little notebook with me. You never know when a good idea is just going to fly your way. When it does, you better be sure to capture that idea on paper or you might forget it.

A very basic rule on reporting: The article must give insight on the five Ws: Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How if you counted. TheWhowas the graduating marines of course, and their instructor and captain possibly. The What was that they were graduating and becoming members of the Canterlot Royal Guard. When was at 11:00 in the morning on that day. Where was at the guard barracks. Why and How? ...I was working on that. Hopefully it would not be too hard.

Finding the barracks were not as hard as I thought. There were quite a large crowd of ponies here, to my surprise. I was more surprised to see a large table of refreshments and snacks here. I helped myself to a few carrots, grapes, and cheeses.

All of these ponies were clearly civilians. They must have been families, friends, lovers and sorts come to congratulate and support the new guards on this day. I also noticed a few guards here and there, all looking as stern and intimidating as at the palace.

I made a couple notes quick.

Many pony civilians

Table of snacks

Guards overlooking

I decided to ask one of the civilians about the ceremony. I walked up to one adult male with chestnut-colored fur. He had one adorable little filly at his side with a lighter-colored fur.

I tapped him gingerly on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me, sir," I said loud enough so he could hear me over the bustle of the crowd.

"Hm?" He turned to face me with a smile. "Yeah?"

"Hey, sorry to bother you," I stuttered, "I-I'm with the Canterlot Gazette. Mind answering a few questions quick?" I had my notebook and pen at the ready.

"Sure," He said and turned totally to me, showing that I had his full attention.

I cleared my throat before continuing. "Okay, so um... first of all, who's here that you're coming to see?"

"Well, my son is one of the recruits. He's been writing to me, and told me about this day. I actually got a letter from the company about it too."

"You think that was the case for everyone? That they got a letter that the recruit they knew would be graduating today?"

"I think so."

"So where are they? How is this ceremony going to work? Any idea?"

"Well, the way I've heard it, the way my son's told me, they've been sent on a ten-mile march this morning as a final exam. The hike is suppose to end here. When they come in, they'll get a minute to rest and have some refreshments." He gestured the table of the snacks.

"After that, they will be given their blue stars by their instructor sergeant, who walked them all the way through the hike, and then handed over to the captain of the guards, Shining Armor, to finally kick off their positions."

My ears perked up more when he mentioned Captain Shining Armor. I had heard of him. I had heard that he recently got married. Oddly enough, it was the day the changelings attacked. Poor guy. But then I heard that he, almost single-hoovedly, repelled the attack. Quite an impressive feat.

"I've also heard that there's an upper class of trainees in this group too," The colt continued. "They've already become private-ranked guards, and are passing their final test to be promoted to sergeants."

This sounded interesting.

"Really? Interesting!" I replied. "So the sergeants and privates take the same final test?"

"I guess so," He answered with a shrug. "I think they're going to line up over there, on the other side of that rope, and get their stars, armor, and salutes there." He pointed over to the edge of the crowd.

I saw a fine rope, the kind you would see at the line for a play, keeping the crowd away from a long table full of golden armor. Standing along the table was a few guards, none of which I recognized. I did however, recognize Shining Armor. A quite handsome white stallion with a blue mane, dressed in his fancy red coat.

Perhaps later I would try to interview him, but I had a feeling there was already a long line of reporters who wanted to see him.

I quickly jotted down more notes.

Ten-Mile march=final exam

Privates and Sergeants graduating together

Handed to Shining Armor for assignments

Receiving blue &red stars and helmets

March with sergeant instructor

And that's when another question popped up in my mind. I turned back to the colt.

"Say, do you have any idea who the- uh the sergeant instructor is?"

The colt giggled a little. He opened his mouth to talk, but he was interrupted by his daughter suddenly.

"Hey Daddy?" She said loud so he could hear her over the crowd. "Can I have another apple?"

"No hun," He answered. "You've had plenty. We don't want you to spoil your dinner, now do we?"

"Aww!" She whined and pouted.

"Oh, don't give me that!" He said sweetly. "Just remember what we're having for dinner tonight!"

And with that, a huge smile spread to her face.

"Now just give me another minute, I'm talking," He turned back to me.

"My son wrote to me about the instructor. He goes by the name of Valor. My son has said he's really loud, demanding, strict, and harsh, and above all, strong and committed. My son has really complained about how hard some of the exercises and punishments have been with him."

"Wow!" I nodded. "Sounds like a very intimidating pony!"

"He sure is, I'm sure."

I jotted down some more.

Instructor = Instructor Sergeant Valor.

Intimidating reputation

And suddenly, the crowd started getting louder, and many started rushing toward the rope to look over at the trail.

"Daddy! They're here!" The little filly squealed. The little thing warmed my heart.

Her dad smiled back at her. "One more second, sweetie," He turned back to me. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

I did not want to bother him and make him miss his son, so I simply shook my head and said "Nope. I'm good. Thank you for everything!"

"You're welcome, my friend." He started trotting up to the head of the crowd, his antsy daughter in tow.

"You must be proud of your son," I said after him as he passed me by.

"Of course I am," he nodded.

I made my own way up to the front of the line. It was a tight squeeze, but I could not miss this. I had a job to do.

Just over the hill, I saw one lone colt alicorn marching up. He had dark grey fur, and wore a large round hat that all drill sergeants wore, and a tan, heavy-looking leather vest. He had a stern expression on his face, and each stride seemed to have power in it. This must have been Sergeant Valor.

And then, just a few feet behind him, up from the hill marched a row of more colts, all wearing a similar vest. They legs and boots and vests, and some of their faces, were all caked in mud. And then another row of these colts followed, then another, then another.

I tried to count as fast as I could. I counted about six colts per row, and six rows, a total of thirty-six new recruits. And I noticed their strides as they marched. Each step, every movement, seemed to be in perfect sync with each other. It was really impressive.

My mind and my tongue went blurry as I rushed to get all this down in my notebook.

Finally, the platoon marched up to the front of the crowd. I heard Sergeant Valor shout something I could not hear. It must have been something like "halt" or something, for he and his platoon all stopped.

He shouted again, and the platoon all turned on their hooves to face the crowd. All of this was still in perfect unison, the way this platoon moved. How did they manage this, I wondered. They all seemed to have the same serious expression on their faces. Their gaze was unwavering as well. They all looked straight ahead at the crowd.

And then Valor shouted something else, and still in a totally planned and organized way, they spread out, and lined up until they were in a single-file line that stretched on.

When they were lined up, there was another moment of silence.

Valor stood beside Shining Armor for a moment. They may have been whispering, I could not tell. A few armored guards then came out, each picking up a set of armor off the long table, and came over toward Valor. One guard lined up beside Valor, using his magic horn to hold up a fine wooden box. He opened it, revealing the blue stars.

Just then, Valor and the guards all started walking toward the line of recruits. I watched as he started placing the blue stars around their necks, and shook hooves with them. As he moved to the next one, the guards behind him placed a helmet and armor on the recruit.

I continued to watch as Valor kept putting the medals on the ponies.

Eventually, he had finished with the privates; all blue stars were given out. In another orderly manner after a few shouts, a row of five more colts came forward. These must have been the sergeants, for Valor started placing medals with red stars on their chests.

And suddenly, one unicorn he came to caught my eye. This pony had dark brown fur, a black mane and- when I squinted, red eyes.

I only knew one pony with all of that. Could it be? Was that... no way! Thunder Strike? It had to be him! I could never forget the face of my dear friend!

I was so stunned that I barely noticed when Valor and the guards had medaled and armored every recruit in the line.

One armored guard then marched up to the front of the line, and shouted so the audience could hear him. "Let's hear it for platoon number nine-five-A!"

And the audience roared with cheer and clapping.

The newly-armored recruits all stood at firm attention, still unnmoved, until Valor shouted something else, and raised his hoof in a firm salute. With that, every recruit snapped their arms to salute him back, along with the audience and Shining Armor. Again, the platoon was in perfect unison. Shining Armor saluted back.

"AT EASE!" Valor snapped. This time I actually heard him. "DISMISSED!"

And with that, all the salutes stood down, and the newly appointed guards all marched toward the cheering crowd. One guard released the rope, and the crowd and recruits all met, and cheering and talking and hugging and laughing.

The guards' facade faded, and they each smiled as they rejoiced with their loved ones. So these ponies were not completely machines after all.

I noticed as many guards headed for the snack table, and greedily took some food and drink and started eating ravenously. It made sense to me. They must have had to live on small rations in training.

I looked around for Thunder Strike. I was hyped to see him finally after all these years. I wanted to rush at him, to hug him and congratulate him, to catch up with him.

But then I thought about it some more. In this big crowd and if they were about to leave with Shining Armor to their stations, perhaps now would not be the best time or place for that. It may feel awkward anyway. I figured I should just let him have his moment with his guard buddies, and his parents if they came to see him.

I would look for him later for sure.

Besides, work came first. I needed to see if I could talk to Sergeant Valor.