Knights of Equestria: Pageby queenlightningChaptersSleepy town, you know what that means...Joining the KnightsThe Journey BeginsAn Ambush in the ForestSleepy town, you know what that means...Blizzard Strike crouched on a low lying cloud, watching the surrounding area with half closed eyes. She kept her wings spread in case she had to make a hasty get away. Even though they could barely keep her at the height of the lowest tree branches, she could sustain flight long enough to get to a higher perch if need be. It took a lot of effort on her part to just reach this cloud, which was only ten feet from the ground and two feet from the top of the tree she used to get to the fluffy thing, but it was worth the view of Sky Point, her hometown. She snorted softly, clearing her head from thought and concentrated on the small hill surrounded by trees beneath her. There, movement at the edge of the tree-line. Then she heard a soft whistle, the signal. Blizzard spread her small wings, jumped from her cloud perch, and glided down onto the top of the hill. Fluttering a little before landing, she looked around and whistled, signaling that she was ready. She heard rustling and then silence. Suddenly, she heard somepony cry "Charge!" and would have been bowled over if she didn't leap to the right. Turning and facing the gray earth pony colt who charged her, she flicked her ears and ducked as a red pegasus filly dived at her. Blizzard leaped at the colt, somehow knowing he would try to dodge left and used her wings to adjust her trajectory accordingly, and knocked him over. She landed slightly behind him and turned around to meet another filly, this one an orange unicorn, nearly knocking her down by grabbing her hind legs in a weak magical grip. Blizzard flapped her wings hard to get some air and dropped onto the unicorn, breaking her grip and knocking her on the ground, nearly losing her own balance in the process and narrowly avoiding a dive bomb by the red pegasus. That left the red pegasus filly. Said filly was crouched on the top of the hill. Blizzard knew the filly had the high ground, so she waited until the filly jumped at her to dive forward and bounce her hoof over mane, which was exactly what happened. "I win!" Blizzard cried. "Couldn't you have won without knocking me onto my back Bliz?" the red pegasus asked grumpily. "Your own fault for not checking to see where I was Flame. Besides, you guys nearly had me when I was gripped by Quartz," came the reply. "But you still beat us! How do you always know where somepony is going to be?" Quartz complained, helping the gray colt to his hooves. "Yeah Blizzard, it's almost like you could see into our minds." he said. "I don't know. It's like I estimate where they're going to be, but I don't look into their heads Fog." Blizzard answered. "Any way, let's go to my house and get a snack, I'm hungry" As the young ponies left with a collective "yeah", they were oblivious to the shadow that watched them from the tree lines, pondering what it just saw while tracking the youngsters with its golden eyes. As the three fillies and colt munched on lichen sandwiches, the talked about their recent play fight. Well, three of them were, Blizzard just listened and thought about how such a group of friends came to be. None of them had their cutie marks yet, even though they were all ten years old, so that might have been a factor, but it didn't answer the question. A gray earth pony, an orange unicorn, and two pegasi with opposite natures that were reflected in name and hide color would not really be expected to become the best of friends, and yet they had. Quartz Spark was a unicorn who was calm and willing to listen, sometimes, and having a fascination with anything to do with stones, including the dull and uninteresting looking ones. Fog Step was a quiet earth pony, usually, but was not afraid to protect his friends, he could slip in and out of fog, almost like magic. Flame Wing was hot-headed and rebellious, unless an order interested her or benefited her in the long run, she would grumble about it until she finished whatever she was asked to do. Blizzard however, was a thinker and usually in tuned to her surroundings. She was fierce and fast though, never relenting either if she had a good reason in her head to be unrelenting. So different, and yet they balanced each other out with their particular quirks. Blizzard was snapped out of her thoughts when Flame shook her shoulder. She looked at Flame and then noticed that the others were almost jumping in their seats. "Blizzard, wake up! We want to head to the library to check out some books and then go to the square to see why everypony is anxious today. Want to come?" Quartz said. "Fine. I did want to check out the new adventure novels they had, particularly that Crystal Mirror series. Well, let's go." Blizzard said, trotting over to the door. The others quickly followed. As they made their way to the library, a crowd of adults was gathering by the news stand. Curious, they went over. After a bit of struggling to get to the stand, Quartz bought a newspaper and lifted it in her telekinesis over to her friends. Together they read the paper and widened their eyes at the story. Apparently, the Equestrian Armed Forces were coming to town to recruit ponies. Of course there were going to be the usual hoof soldiers and avian forces, but the Knights of Equestria were also sending somepony to induct and start training some fillies and colts to be knights. This hadn't happened in centuries! There was even a letter from the Princesses stating: Dear Honest Subjects, In light of the recent attack by the Changelings, my sister and I have decided to encourage you to give your support and join the Equestrian Armed Forces. This includes the Knights of Equestria training your foals to become knights themselves. We both know the parents among you will hesitate to agree to letting your foals train as warriors, so I have imposed an age limit. The colt or filly must be at least ten years old in order to join as a page. Keep in mind that the knights will let the foals be foals and teach them what they would normally learn in school, with a few variances to the curriculum. Your cooperation is imperative, as much as it pains us to admit this, the Royal Guard just isn't enough to fend off an attack from foreign invaders and we need more ponies in our armed forces. Thank you for your cooperation in advance. Signed, Princesses Celestia and Luna "Wow, the Knights of Equestria want pages. I wonder if my parents will let me join?" Flame said. The others started to talk excitedly. "Well, the recruiter won't come for a while yet, so let's go to the library." Blizzard said. The four are set off again for the library, blissfully unaware of what was to come. Joining the KnightsAt night, Blizzard tossed and turned in her sleep. In her dream, a she was being chased by a large shadow in a huge, dark corridor as crystals that were pure black shot up in her path, causing her to rapidly change course constantly. She was galloping as fast as she could, but it wasn't enough. The shadow was almost upon her, when suddenly, there was a bright flash and a large blizzard sprang up and blew the shadow away, breaking the crystals as well. A whirlwind appeared and when it cleared, it revealed a pure white alicorn with a mane that was reminiscent of a severe blizzard. "Child, rest your mind, your time is not now." the alicorn said in a kindly and relaxing voice. She lowered her horn and spread her wings. "Sleep, and do not worry." Blizzard was transported to another, more pleasant dream, soon to wake up and not remember anything about her strange dream. She would not notice a certain other alicorn with a dark blue hide and a flowing mane filled with stars watching, a troubled expression on her regal face. Later in the morning, Blizzard set about the task of convincing her parents to let her join the Knights of Equestria as a page. They were adamant to not let her join, until she told them that the knights would teach her academic things as well as how to be a knight without her parents paying tuition on a good school. After that, they were beginning to be won over to the idea, but they still had their doubts. "Well dear, since you seem to know a lot about what's expected of a page when one starts to train as one, will you be expected to fight for Equestria as soon as you know how to?" her mother asked, worried. "Well, pages are sworn to protect the innocent until they die, no matter how deadly the circumstance...." she trailed off when she saw her parents' expressions, "but pages aren't expected to do anything other than learn, carry messages, and serve the knight instructors, unless it's absolutely necessary. I mean, it has to be an all out 'we won't survive unless everyone helps in the fight' sort of situation, which I highly, highly doubt will happen while I'm a page." "Well that's...nice to know, I guess." her father said, uncertainly. This was going to take some time. Blizzard sighed inwardly, thankful that the knight who was supposed to recruit the prospective pages wasn't going to be in town until Thursday. She read about the dates that the recruiters would come while she listened to her friends read the letter from the Princesses to their subjects. Truth be told, Blizzard was waiting for something like this to happen ever since she read about the knights when she was just five. She had been inspired by them and what they stood for. In fact, the hope of joining the knights is what drove Blizzard to learn how to fight, not as well as a soldier or guard, but well enough to defend herself. It is quite useful for the occasional bully that came along. "Well, I'm going out to play with my friends, see you later." she said as she bolted out the door. "Honey, wait! Your breakfast... *sigh* What are we going to do about that child?" her mother said. "Well, there is the knight training she wants. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to like the idea." her dad said. "Alright, I will admit that the idea appeals to me. It seems she isn't going anywhere in life anyway. It probably would be for the best." her mother said, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and be as supportive as possible." Finally, it was the weekend. Blizzard found it surprisingly easy to convince her parent's after the initial talk she had with them. In fact, all they asked her to do was to be careful and write them as often as possible. Her friends had similar luck. In fact, the day she had that first talk with her parent's, she went out and inquired what her friends' success was with their own parents. It took little convincing for all of them to agree. For Fog, who's parents were on the edge of divorce because his dad is a complete jerk and alcohol addict, his mother viewed his asking to become a page as a blessing and agreed to it almost right away, while his dad couldn't have cared less. Quartz and Flame had the same amount of difficulty Blizzard had, but it only took them three days to convince their parents. The knight herself came on Thursday. She was an extremely light gray with a pale golden mane. Her full title was Lady Knight Ash Sky, but she insisted on just being called "Ash", or, if a pony insisted on being somewhat formal, "Lady Sky". Though, if a filly or colt had joined as a page, she ordered them to follow protocol and call her "Instructor Sky". Predictably, Blizzard and her friends were the first to join due to their parents agreeing so quickly. Being the instructor for the pegasi and the hoof to hoof combat teacher, Ash studied Blizzard and Flame closely, somewhat surprised that the two were doing the same to her. In her mind, Ash thought that Quartz would interest Magma Glow and Fog would intrigue the Earth pony instructor. She took a critical look at Blizzard. To an observer, it would look like Blizzard and Ash were staring each other down. Liking what each saw in the other, Ash had the fillies and colt sign their names on a form and had them recite an oath. This is what it was: We promise to to uphold the rules of our instructors, and the laws of Equestria. We agree to protect the innocent, the weak, the sick, and anypony who cannot defend themselves for any good reason, as well as the peace when needed. Until our death, or the end of our time as pages, we swear this unto our honor as ponies and as defenders of Equestria and the Princesses. Each of the young friends had different thoughts after they swore the oath. Blizzard was thinking of what the oath meant when it said that she was now a defender of Equestria. Flame was thinking about the protect anypony who had a good reason to not defend themselves bit. Fog was contemplating the entire meaning of the oath. Quartz was stuck on the until death or the end of being pages bit. All of them were brought out of their reveries and told that they had two days left with their families to say goodbye, and that they were to report to the town center at four in the morning on Saturday to leave with Ash to the fortress that the knights had to begin training the pages. Blizzard thought This will be interesting. The Journey BeginsIt was Saturday, and Blizzard and her friends were standing at the town square. Ten other foals were there aside from she and her friends. Instructor Sky was in the front of the group of fourteen foals, standing next to three large chariots with teams of two pegasi each, along with a unicorn and an earth pony. The predawn air was damp, the town square uncomfortably silent. The pegasi were regular soldiers. One could tell that they were because the pegasi wore plain steel armor instead of the flashy gold that the Royal Guard wore. The helms didn't have plumes either. Not many ponies mentioned the Equestrian Royal Army too much. It was a reminder that some nations just detested peace. So many ponies usually ostracize any who mentioned the army for a day or two. It was sad really, but pony nature is sometimes, very rarely, that cruel. Blizzard only knew the army existed because one kind soul wrote a book about them, and it probably wouldn't have been published had the author not gone directly to Princess Celestia to request it to be published. This brought the whole reluctance mention the army into light in in the Princess' eyes, so she rebuked the whole of ponykind for doing such a thing. Ponies began to have at least a little respect for the poor souls of the army, but it will take centuries, or a really bad war, for ponies to finally accept the army. "Alright foals, get used to being called fledgies, 'cause that's what me and the other instructors are calling you from now until your second year with us. I'm Sir Steel Forge, call me Instructor Forge. I'll be teaching ya' fledgies how to take care o' your weapons and armor and teach ya' the basics in all weapons. For the few o' you lucky, strong types with the dexterity of a rhino's foot, as opposed to the rest o' ya' having the dexterity of an elephant's foot, I'll be teachin' ya' how to forge your own weapons and the like." the earth pony said, stepping back. Instructor Forge was, like his name suggests, a big and strong pony, with a mane and tail of gray, splotched with black, and a steel gray hide that tapered of into black on his muzzle and hooves. He had a large scar that went from his left shoulder curling over his neck and going down to his chest. His irises were orange, like embers in a fire. "I am Sir Starlight Twinkle, and any jokes about my name are going to lead to a sixty-three page report about the history of psychology, and, rest assured, I will give you the most boring text book about it." the unicorn threatened. "Refer to me as Instructor Starlight. I will be teaching all of you the basics of magic, as to why will be explained later, and certain academic subjects. I will also be teaching how to use mage blades if any are proficient in that sort of thing." Instructor Starlight was blue with a light yellow, almost white, mane and tail. He was average in size. His irises were indigo, flecked with gold. He stepped back to allow Sky forward. "As you already know, I'm Instructor Sky. I will be teaching you all in hoof to hoof combat, the pegasi in aerobatics and aerial combat, and I will teach any lucky pages in strategy and tactics. I do teach other things, but I'll let you find out what I teach. Alright, now that the intros are done here are a few rules before we set off for the fortress. One, don't be jerks to any of your fellow pages and instructors. If you do, well I don't want to tell you what happens. Two, do all of your work and submit it on time, or you will be ordered to do four laps around the inside walls of the fortress. Three, don't do anything that's very stupid, like point a spearhead at your chest and gallop at full speed. Yes, that did happen a few times. Now that that's done, let's move out." she said. With that, the three instructors divided up the new pages, they surprisingly had equal numbers of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, and loaded them onto the chariots. Each instructor got on each chariot with their cargo, Instructor Sky called a command to the pegasi that were hooked up to the chariots, and they were off, with the sun just peeking over the eastern horizon. Blizzard was staring at the scenery that they were rapidly passing by. Only Flame Wing was with her, as she was a pegasus. The first twenty minutes of the flight was amazing, almost like flying herself, then it started to get boring. The other three pegasi foals on the chariot were chatting among themselves, with Flame listening in on them. She thought of the things she would be learning, and then thought of her parents. She already missed them a bit. She had already realized that she won't see them until winter, and it kind of tempered her excitement. She sighed. "Bored?" she jumped as Flame stood next to her. The red pegasus chuckled and said, "Finally got one on you didn't I. So, what do you think our new home for the next couple of months will be like?" "Tiring, messy, and loud." she said "Yeah, you told all of us that it won't be pleasant in the first week. Hey! Is that Fort Cinder Hooves." came the reply. Blizzard nodded and stared at the fort. The fort was rather large. It had a large tower in the center and a bunch of other stone structures around the large central building. Thanks to the superior sight that all pegasi have, Blizzard could even make out the general forge from the smoke stacks. Suddenly, the chariot jolted and one of the pegasi that pulled the chariot cried out in pain. Blizzard glimpsed a sharp bolt sticking through the wing of the unfortunate pegasus with blood starting stain the white feathers crimson, then they started falling. Instructor Sky shouted out to the other chariots to continue on and get help before she spread her wings. Pure instinct made Blizzard spread her wings as well, almost instantly slowing her fall. The other pegasi weren't so lucky, they fell, screaming their lungs out as the steel chariot fell. Instructor Sky swooped next to Blizzard. "Page Blizzard Strike, follow me and dive when I do. Just shove your wings back and point your dominant fore hoof in front of your face. Tuck the other hoof in and fall. This all lets you steer. Now follow me." she said. She dived down after the chariot, and, after a moment's hesitation, Blizzard followed, trying to copy what Ash Sky said to do. She twitched her left wing and was surprised when she did a sharp twist in the air. If it wasn't in such dangerous conditions, Blizzard would have experimented more. As it was, however, she just tried her hardest to follow the light gray pony in front of her. Her last thought as she rapidly approached the trees was Well, here goes nothing. An Ambush in the ForestFlame Wing groaned as she opened her eyes. She stared at her surroundings with confusion, until the memories of the crash came flooding back to her. With a more coherent approach, she took a closer look at what was around and where she was. The place was apparently a forest clearing, with Flame hanging awkwardly from a tree. Her fellow pages were strewn about the clearing, groaning and whimpering. The chariot itself was a pile of twisted metal, with the pegasi soldiers' figures ominously still. Flame almost didn't see the gray, lumbering things that were at the edges of the clearing. On closer inspection, the gray things looked like deformed dogs holding large, wooden objects and what looked like... nets? The wooden things the... dog-things were holding had sharp bolts, Flame thought that's what they were. Did these dog-things shoot them down? If so, Flame thought she should remain in her perch, because it looked like they were only looking at her fellow pages on the ground. One of the dog-things started talking to its companions. "Skrill! This not load of gems, these ponies. Young ponies!" a large tan colored dog-thing cried. "Sorry Tal, but what so important about young ponies?" the one Flame assumed was Skrill replied. Skrill was a dark gray color with a large under bite. "Skrill, you idiot! Older ponies with weapons will look for young ponies! They do anything for young-" Tal, what was assumed the leader of the group, stopped mid-rant as his face lit up with a realization. "Yes, they do anything for young ponies, even give us gems for them." Tal looked at his companions and said. "This becoming good idea. You lot, use nets to gather young ponies. We take them back to den." Flame was starting to get agitated with concern for her fellow pages when a confident voice called out. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. We 'older ponies' don't take kindly to foal-nappers. In fact, we down right loathe them." Blizzard was losing altitude a little too fast. Following her instructor was harder than she expected and she was getting scared of crashing onto the forest floor. They were fast approaching a clearing that looked like it was full of figures and things, but Instructor Sky seemed to know that it was where they needed to go to. "Alright page," she called over to Blizzard, "I want you to angle your front half upwards and lower your hind legs. After that, beat your wings forward and then downwards." Blizzard tried to do so and semi-succeeded, almost flipping head over tail into a tree. Blizzard fluttered her wings frantically to keep herself in the air and she looked up at Sky to see there was faint amusement in the stern pegesus's eyes, which gave Blizzard a wave of minor embarrassment. It was soon dispelled by Sky gesturing towards the clearing they approached.
Sleepy town, you know what that means...Blizzard Strike crouched on a low lying cloud, watching the surrounding area with half closed eyes. She kept her wings spread in case she had to make a hasty get away. Even though they could barely keep her at the height of the lowest tree branches, she could sustain flight long enough to get to a higher perch if need be. It took a lot of effort on her part to just reach this cloud, which was only ten feet from the ground and two feet from the top of the tree she used to get to the fluffy thing, but it was worth the view of Sky Point, her hometown. She snorted softly, clearing her head from thought and concentrated on the small hill surrounded by trees beneath her. There, movement at the edge of the tree-line. Then she heard a soft whistle, the signal. Blizzard spread her small wings, jumped from her cloud perch, and glided down onto the top of the hill. Fluttering a little before landing, she looked around and whistled, signaling that she was ready. She heard rustling and then silence. Suddenly, she heard somepony cry "Charge!" and would have been bowled over if she didn't leap to the right. Turning and facing the gray earth pony colt who charged her, she flicked her ears and ducked as a red pegasus filly dived at her. Blizzard leaped at the colt, somehow knowing he would try to dodge left and used her wings to adjust her trajectory accordingly, and knocked him over. She landed slightly behind him and turned around to meet another filly, this one an orange unicorn, nearly knocking her down by grabbing her hind legs in a weak magical grip. Blizzard flapped her wings hard to get some air and dropped onto the unicorn, breaking her grip and knocking her on the ground, nearly losing her own balance in the process and narrowly avoiding a dive bomb by the red pegasus. That left the red pegasus filly. Said filly was crouched on the top of the hill. Blizzard knew the filly had the high ground, so she waited until the filly jumped at her to dive forward and bounce her hoof over mane, which was exactly what happened. "I win!" Blizzard cried. "Couldn't you have won without knocking me onto my back Bliz?" the red pegasus asked grumpily. "Your own fault for not checking to see where I was Flame. Besides, you guys nearly had me when I was gripped by Quartz," came the reply. "But you still beat us! How do you always know where somepony is going to be?" Quartz complained, helping the gray colt to his hooves. "Yeah Blizzard, it's almost like you could see into our minds." he said. "I don't know. It's like I estimate where they're going to be, but I don't look into their heads Fog." Blizzard answered. "Any way, let's go to my house and get a snack, I'm hungry" As the young ponies left with a collective "yeah", they were oblivious to the shadow that watched them from the tree lines, pondering what it just saw while tracking the youngsters with its golden eyes. As the three fillies and colt munched on lichen sandwiches, the talked about their recent play fight. Well, three of them were, Blizzard just listened and thought about how such a group of friends came to be. None of them had their cutie marks yet, even though they were all ten years old, so that might have been a factor, but it didn't answer the question. A gray earth pony, an orange unicorn, and two pegasi with opposite natures that were reflected in name and hide color would not really be expected to become the best of friends, and yet they had. Quartz Spark was a unicorn who was calm and willing to listen, sometimes, and having a fascination with anything to do with stones, including the dull and uninteresting looking ones. Fog Step was a quiet earth pony, usually, but was not afraid to protect his friends, he could slip in and out of fog, almost like magic. Flame Wing was hot-headed and rebellious, unless an order interested her or benefited her in the long run, she would grumble about it until she finished whatever she was asked to do. Blizzard however, was a thinker and usually in tuned to her surroundings. She was fierce and fast though, never relenting either if she had a good reason in her head to be unrelenting. So different, and yet they balanced each other out with their particular quirks. Blizzard was snapped out of her thoughts when Flame shook her shoulder. She looked at Flame and then noticed that the others were almost jumping in their seats. "Blizzard, wake up! We want to head to the library to check out some books and then go to the square to see why everypony is anxious today. Want to come?" Quartz said. "Fine. I did want to check out the new adventure novels they had, particularly that Crystal Mirror series. Well, let's go." Blizzard said, trotting over to the door. The others quickly followed. As they made their way to the library, a crowd of adults was gathering by the news stand. Curious, they went over. After a bit of struggling to get to the stand, Quartz bought a newspaper and lifted it in her telekinesis over to her friends. Together they read the paper and widened their eyes at the story. Apparently, the Equestrian Armed Forces were coming to town to recruit ponies. Of course there were going to be the usual hoof soldiers and avian forces, but the Knights of Equestria were also sending somepony to induct and start training some fillies and colts to be knights. This hadn't happened in centuries! There was even a letter from the Princesses stating: Dear Honest Subjects, In light of the recent attack by the Changelings, my sister and I have decided to encourage you to give your support and join the Equestrian Armed Forces. This includes the Knights of Equestria training your foals to become knights themselves. We both know the parents among you will hesitate to agree to letting your foals train as warriors, so I have imposed an age limit. The colt or filly must be at least ten years old in order to join as a page. Keep in mind that the knights will let the foals be foals and teach them what they would normally learn in school, with a few variances to the curriculum. Your cooperation is imperative, as much as it pains us to admit this, the Royal Guard just isn't enough to fend off an attack from foreign invaders and we need more ponies in our armed forces. Thank you for your cooperation in advance. Signed, Princesses Celestia and Luna "Wow, the Knights of Equestria want pages. I wonder if my parents will let me join?" Flame said. The others started to talk excitedly. "Well, the recruiter won't come for a while yet, so let's go to the library." Blizzard said. The four are set off again for the library, blissfully unaware of what was to come.
Joining the KnightsAt night, Blizzard tossed and turned in her sleep. In her dream, a she was being chased by a large shadow in a huge, dark corridor as crystals that were pure black shot up in her path, causing her to rapidly change course constantly. She was galloping as fast as she could, but it wasn't enough. The shadow was almost upon her, when suddenly, there was a bright flash and a large blizzard sprang up and blew the shadow away, breaking the crystals as well. A whirlwind appeared and when it cleared, it revealed a pure white alicorn with a mane that was reminiscent of a severe blizzard. "Child, rest your mind, your time is not now." the alicorn said in a kindly and relaxing voice. She lowered her horn and spread her wings. "Sleep, and do not worry." Blizzard was transported to another, more pleasant dream, soon to wake up and not remember anything about her strange dream. She would not notice a certain other alicorn with a dark blue hide and a flowing mane filled with stars watching, a troubled expression on her regal face. Later in the morning, Blizzard set about the task of convincing her parents to let her join the Knights of Equestria as a page. They were adamant to not let her join, until she told them that the knights would teach her academic things as well as how to be a knight without her parents paying tuition on a good school. After that, they were beginning to be won over to the idea, but they still had their doubts. "Well dear, since you seem to know a lot about what's expected of a page when one starts to train as one, will you be expected to fight for Equestria as soon as you know how to?" her mother asked, worried. "Well, pages are sworn to protect the innocent until they die, no matter how deadly the circumstance...." she trailed off when she saw her parents' expressions, "but pages aren't expected to do anything other than learn, carry messages, and serve the knight instructors, unless it's absolutely necessary. I mean, it has to be an all out 'we won't survive unless everyone helps in the fight' sort of situation, which I highly, highly doubt will happen while I'm a page." "Well that's...nice to know, I guess." her father said, uncertainly. This was going to take some time. Blizzard sighed inwardly, thankful that the knight who was supposed to recruit the prospective pages wasn't going to be in town until Thursday. She read about the dates that the recruiters would come while she listened to her friends read the letter from the Princesses to their subjects. Truth be told, Blizzard was waiting for something like this to happen ever since she read about the knights when she was just five. She had been inspired by them and what they stood for. In fact, the hope of joining the knights is what drove Blizzard to learn how to fight, not as well as a soldier or guard, but well enough to defend herself. It is quite useful for the occasional bully that came along. "Well, I'm going out to play with my friends, see you later." she said as she bolted out the door. "Honey, wait! Your breakfast... *sigh* What are we going to do about that child?" her mother said. "Well, there is the knight training she wants. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to like the idea." her dad said. "Alright, I will admit that the idea appeals to me. It seems she isn't going anywhere in life anyway. It probably would be for the best." her mother said, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and be as supportive as possible." Finally, it was the weekend. Blizzard found it surprisingly easy to convince her parent's after the initial talk she had with them. In fact, all they asked her to do was to be careful and write them as often as possible. Her friends had similar luck. In fact, the day she had that first talk with her parent's, she went out and inquired what her friends' success was with their own parents. It took little convincing for all of them to agree. For Fog, who's parents were on the edge of divorce because his dad is a complete jerk and alcohol addict, his mother viewed his asking to become a page as a blessing and agreed to it almost right away, while his dad couldn't have cared less. Quartz and Flame had the same amount of difficulty Blizzard had, but it only took them three days to convince their parents. The knight herself came on Thursday. She was an extremely light gray with a pale golden mane. Her full title was Lady Knight Ash Sky, but she insisted on just being called "Ash", or, if a pony insisted on being somewhat formal, "Lady Sky". Though, if a filly or colt had joined as a page, she ordered them to follow protocol and call her "Instructor Sky". Predictably, Blizzard and her friends were the first to join due to their parents agreeing so quickly. Being the instructor for the pegasi and the hoof to hoof combat teacher, Ash studied Blizzard and Flame closely, somewhat surprised that the two were doing the same to her. In her mind, Ash thought that Quartz would interest Magma Glow and Fog would intrigue the Earth pony instructor. She took a critical look at Blizzard. To an observer, it would look like Blizzard and Ash were staring each other down. Liking what each saw in the other, Ash had the fillies and colt sign their names on a form and had them recite an oath. This is what it was: We promise to to uphold the rules of our instructors, and the laws of Equestria. We agree to protect the innocent, the weak, the sick, and anypony who cannot defend themselves for any good reason, as well as the peace when needed. Until our death, or the end of our time as pages, we swear this unto our honor as ponies and as defenders of Equestria and the Princesses. Each of the young friends had different thoughts after they swore the oath. Blizzard was thinking of what the oath meant when it said that she was now a defender of Equestria. Flame was thinking about the protect anypony who had a good reason to not defend themselves bit. Fog was contemplating the entire meaning of the oath. Quartz was stuck on the until death or the end of being pages bit. All of them were brought out of their reveries and told that they had two days left with their families to say goodbye, and that they were to report to the town center at four in the morning on Saturday to leave with Ash to the fortress that the knights had to begin training the pages. Blizzard thought This will be interesting.
The Journey BeginsIt was Saturday, and Blizzard and her friends were standing at the town square. Ten other foals were there aside from she and her friends. Instructor Sky was in the front of the group of fourteen foals, standing next to three large chariots with teams of two pegasi each, along with a unicorn and an earth pony. The predawn air was damp, the town square uncomfortably silent. The pegasi were regular soldiers. One could tell that they were because the pegasi wore plain steel armor instead of the flashy gold that the Royal Guard wore. The helms didn't have plumes either. Not many ponies mentioned the Equestrian Royal Army too much. It was a reminder that some nations just detested peace. So many ponies usually ostracize any who mentioned the army for a day or two. It was sad really, but pony nature is sometimes, very rarely, that cruel. Blizzard only knew the army existed because one kind soul wrote a book about them, and it probably wouldn't have been published had the author not gone directly to Princess Celestia to request it to be published. This brought the whole reluctance mention the army into light in in the Princess' eyes, so she rebuked the whole of ponykind for doing such a thing. Ponies began to have at least a little respect for the poor souls of the army, but it will take centuries, or a really bad war, for ponies to finally accept the army. "Alright foals, get used to being called fledgies, 'cause that's what me and the other instructors are calling you from now until your second year with us. I'm Sir Steel Forge, call me Instructor Forge. I'll be teaching ya' fledgies how to take care o' your weapons and armor and teach ya' the basics in all weapons. For the few o' you lucky, strong types with the dexterity of a rhino's foot, as opposed to the rest o' ya' having the dexterity of an elephant's foot, I'll be teachin' ya' how to forge your own weapons and the like." the earth pony said, stepping back. Instructor Forge was, like his name suggests, a big and strong pony, with a mane and tail of gray, splotched with black, and a steel gray hide that tapered of into black on his muzzle and hooves. He had a large scar that went from his left shoulder curling over his neck and going down to his chest. His irises were orange, like embers in a fire. "I am Sir Starlight Twinkle, and any jokes about my name are going to lead to a sixty-three page report about the history of psychology, and, rest assured, I will give you the most boring text book about it." the unicorn threatened. "Refer to me as Instructor Starlight. I will be teaching all of you the basics of magic, as to why will be explained later, and certain academic subjects. I will also be teaching how to use mage blades if any are proficient in that sort of thing." Instructor Starlight was blue with a light yellow, almost white, mane and tail. He was average in size. His irises were indigo, flecked with gold. He stepped back to allow Sky forward. "As you already know, I'm Instructor Sky. I will be teaching you all in hoof to hoof combat, the pegasi in aerobatics and aerial combat, and I will teach any lucky pages in strategy and tactics. I do teach other things, but I'll let you find out what I teach. Alright, now that the intros are done here are a few rules before we set off for the fortress. One, don't be jerks to any of your fellow pages and instructors. If you do, well I don't want to tell you what happens. Two, do all of your work and submit it on time, or you will be ordered to do four laps around the inside walls of the fortress. Three, don't do anything that's very stupid, like point a spearhead at your chest and gallop at full speed. Yes, that did happen a few times. Now that that's done, let's move out." she said. With that, the three instructors divided up the new pages, they surprisingly had equal numbers of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, and loaded them onto the chariots. Each instructor got on each chariot with their cargo, Instructor Sky called a command to the pegasi that were hooked up to the chariots, and they were off, with the sun just peeking over the eastern horizon. Blizzard was staring at the scenery that they were rapidly passing by. Only Flame Wing was with her, as she was a pegasus. The first twenty minutes of the flight was amazing, almost like flying herself, then it started to get boring. The other three pegasi foals on the chariot were chatting among themselves, with Flame listening in on them. She thought of the things she would be learning, and then thought of her parents. She already missed them a bit. She had already realized that she won't see them until winter, and it kind of tempered her excitement. She sighed. "Bored?" she jumped as Flame stood next to her. The red pegasus chuckled and said, "Finally got one on you didn't I. So, what do you think our new home for the next couple of months will be like?" "Tiring, messy, and loud." she said "Yeah, you told all of us that it won't be pleasant in the first week. Hey! Is that Fort Cinder Hooves." came the reply. Blizzard nodded and stared at the fort. The fort was rather large. It had a large tower in the center and a bunch of other stone structures around the large central building. Thanks to the superior sight that all pegasi have, Blizzard could even make out the general forge from the smoke stacks. Suddenly, the chariot jolted and one of the pegasi that pulled the chariot cried out in pain. Blizzard glimpsed a sharp bolt sticking through the wing of the unfortunate pegasus with blood starting stain the white feathers crimson, then they started falling. Instructor Sky shouted out to the other chariots to continue on and get help before she spread her wings. Pure instinct made Blizzard spread her wings as well, almost instantly slowing her fall. The other pegasi weren't so lucky, they fell, screaming their lungs out as the steel chariot fell. Instructor Sky swooped next to Blizzard. "Page Blizzard Strike, follow me and dive when I do. Just shove your wings back and point your dominant fore hoof in front of your face. Tuck the other hoof in and fall. This all lets you steer. Now follow me." she said. She dived down after the chariot, and, after a moment's hesitation, Blizzard followed, trying to copy what Ash Sky said to do. She twitched her left wing and was surprised when she did a sharp twist in the air. If it wasn't in such dangerous conditions, Blizzard would have experimented more. As it was, however, she just tried her hardest to follow the light gray pony in front of her. Her last thought as she rapidly approached the trees was Well, here goes nothing.
An Ambush in the ForestFlame Wing groaned as she opened her eyes. She stared at her surroundings with confusion, until the memories of the crash came flooding back to her. With a more coherent approach, she took a closer look at what was around and where she was. The place was apparently a forest clearing, with Flame hanging awkwardly from a tree. Her fellow pages were strewn about the clearing, groaning and whimpering. The chariot itself was a pile of twisted metal, with the pegasi soldiers' figures ominously still. Flame almost didn't see the gray, lumbering things that were at the edges of the clearing. On closer inspection, the gray things looked like deformed dogs holding large, wooden objects and what looked like... nets? The wooden things the... dog-things were holding had sharp bolts, Flame thought that's what they were. Did these dog-things shoot them down? If so, Flame thought she should remain in her perch, because it looked like they were only looking at her fellow pages on the ground. One of the dog-things started talking to its companions. "Skrill! This not load of gems, these ponies. Young ponies!" a large tan colored dog-thing cried. "Sorry Tal, but what so important about young ponies?" the one Flame assumed was Skrill replied. Skrill was a dark gray color with a large under bite. "Skrill, you idiot! Older ponies with weapons will look for young ponies! They do anything for young-" Tal, what was assumed the leader of the group, stopped mid-rant as his face lit up with a realization. "Yes, they do anything for young ponies, even give us gems for them." Tal looked at his companions and said. "This becoming good idea. You lot, use nets to gather young ponies. We take them back to den." Flame was starting to get agitated with concern for her fellow pages when a confident voice called out. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. We 'older ponies' don't take kindly to foal-nappers. In fact, we down right loathe them." Blizzard was losing altitude a little too fast. Following her instructor was harder than she expected and she was getting scared of crashing onto the forest floor. They were fast approaching a clearing that looked like it was full of figures and things, but Instructor Sky seemed to know that it was where they needed to go to. "Alright page," she called over to Blizzard, "I want you to angle your front half upwards and lower your hind legs. After that, beat your wings forward and then downwards." Blizzard tried to do so and semi-succeeded, almost flipping head over tail into a tree. Blizzard fluttered her wings frantically to keep herself in the air and she looked up at Sky to see there was faint amusement in the stern pegesus's eyes, which gave Blizzard a wave of minor embarrassment. It was soon dispelled by Sky gesturing towards the clearing they approached.
